There have been a number of times when Obama and the government have been caught off guard.
Whether they are developments that have taken place locally or involving foreign policy, the number of times that this has taken place has been a few.
That said, here are 4 times the President and his team were caught napping:
#1: NSA spying on foreign leaders
Obama was complete unaware that the NSA was spying on leaders such as the German Chancellor Angela Merkel for almost 5 years. It was only in an internal Obama administration review that the President found out what was going on.
#2: VA waiting list scandal
As Jay Carney revealed it was only when a news reports from Phoenix revealed the scandal which made veterans wait for their benefits. Even though the delay was known for a while, the President did not get to know about it not until much later. In fact, Secretary Shinseki found out about this from reports and then took action immediately.
#3: Healthcare.Gov failure
Again, Jay Carney admitted that there were glitches with the site and while problems were expected, they weren’t aware that it would be as significant as what happened, thanks to the overwhelming response that the site enjoyed. Yet again, they weren’t sure how to handle it promptly either.
#4: Department of Justice obtaining Associated Press’ phone records
As for the Department of Justice obtaining phone records, the President was informed of it much later and actually when he was on the road from news reports yet again. As for further information, the simple fact that he did not have any insights on why this scandal occurred was glaringly obvious too.