It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. One pen-and-phone executive action driving the stubborn VA scandal out of the limelight, welcoming home an American held captive by our enemies. The vanquisher of Osama bin Laden now bringing home the last prisoner of war. The optics would be great: sharing the Rose Garden spotlight with grateful parents, and a hero’s welcome from small town, USA in rustic Idaho. And as a bonus, Gitmo would get 5 very troublesome inmates closer to empty. He would cap the week in which he announced the pullout from Afghanistan with a triumphal return.
But the exchange of Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban kingpins hasn’t worked out as planned. A firestorm of criticism has erupted, with Bergdahl’s former comrades in arms proclaiming him a deserter, Congress upset that it was not informed of the transfer of Gitmo prisoners as required by a law Obama himself signed, and Susan Rice once again playing the role of Sunday show stand up gal, maintaining Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction,” only to have a court martial for desertion come into discussion at the highest level of the military.
How could the president, proclaimed by presidential historian Michael Beschloss the smartest man with the highest IQ ever elected to the presidency, misread the situation so badly? Several reasons suggest themselves.