We're losing faith in Obama's ability

President Obama's policies, performance, and attitudes are putting all of us, including his staunchest supporters, at higher levels of risk. The "underwear" bomber incident is just the latest example where I believe the president is not measuring up.

His Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, in whom the president has expressed full confidence, told the American people that the system worked! No it didn't!

Only a defective explosive device and a courageous passenger kept almost three hundred people out of a smoking hole in the ground. Her lame excuse a day later was that the administration immediately stepped up security measures after the event would have been less than cold comfort if the bomb had detonated. How can the president have full confidence in a department head that doesn't have the intelligence and fortitude to face and tell the truth?

If you don't believe something is broken, you certainly can't fix it. Then, the president took three days, that's right, three days to publicly respond to an attack on America and then only in a very perfunctory manner. No passion, no outrage, just "yeah, will bring someone to justice."

Subsequently the public has learned that the CIA and the State Department had information could have been used to keep the bomber from even boarding the aircraft, but wasn't. It is even more insightful to the administrations mindset that they tried to deflect blame onto the previous administrations procedures.

Ahem, Mr. President, you took over responsibility for the security of the country 11 months back. Mr. President, wake up, we are at war! Until you give more than lip service to your pronouncements, you not only are putting Americans unnecessarily in harm's way, you also risking our freedom and way of life.

Joe H. Heater

Palatine