Obama on Pres. Briefings: It’s Doesn’t Matter How Smart You Are, You Need Data

‘You have to have the best information possible to make the best decisions possible’

RUSH EXCERPT:
OBAMA: "Well, I think the president-elect may say one thing and do another once he's here because the truth of the matter is it's a big, complicated world. It doesn't matter how smart you are, you have to have the best information possible to make the best decisions possible, and my experience with our intelligence agencies is that they are not perfect -- they would be the first to acknowledge that -- but they are full of extraordinary hard-working and patriotic and knowledgeable experts, and if you're not getting their perspective, their detailed perspective, then you are flying blind. Part of what we have done is to just hammer away that the basic principle that intelligence shall not be subject to political spin, and I'm very proud of the fact that, over the course of eight years, the message I've sent to every intelligence agency is I want it straight without spin, and I think we've developed a culture that does that. My hope is that that remains because we've seen, in the past, where there was political spin on intelligence, or at least the intelligence agencies felt obliged to cater to the predispositions of the president or team that you make bad mistakes."

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