One of the more unseemly tendencies of the Obama administration is the near non-stop efforts to convince the nation, and themselves, that Obama is a tough guy. If ever a phrase will be used to describe Obama’s regime it will be the one he used to Eric Cantor during budget negotiations: “Don’t call my bluff.”

The stories purveyed by the administration’s propagandists range from the unbelievable (Obama being intimately involved in the decision to pot a few unlucky Somali pirates), to the macabre (the orgasmic rhapsodizing on how he personally decides who get hit by a drone attacks), to the banal (the whole “gutsy call” on Osama bin Ladin). These parables of manliness are apparently believable to the rubes who write for major publications because they result in hilariously fellatory article, an article that would have been illegal in most states before Lawrence v Texas, like this one in Esquire titled The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama.

These stories all have a particular sameness to them. Like a latter day Münchausen interjects himself into a current event and morphs it into an example of his toughness, his courageousness, and his general manliness.

Today we get a new one in the series. A USA Today article titled “Obama surprised staff with decision on Syria” opens with this lede:

The president’s decision to seek congressional approval for a military strike against Syria came out of the blue — none of his national security team saw it coming, according to three senior administration officials.

Now there are number of reasons why his staff might be surprised by any decision made by Obama. As a second class man gifted with a third class intellect his decisions always have the quality of a James Bond martini, you are left shaken not stirred.

The fable continues:

Obama told some of his senior advisers during a National Security Council meeting last weekend that he was leaning toward taking action against Syria, but had not made a final decision, said the officials, who spoke on the condition they not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. As Obama mulled his next steps, the aides advised him not to seek congressional authorization for a military strike, they said.

But when Obama convened his senior advisers Friday night to tell them he had settled on launching a narrowly focused strike against the Bashar Assad regime, he also told them something stunning: He would ask Congress to authorize it first.

So Obama made a snap decision Friday night to ask for Congressional approval for a strike on Syria. His advisors disagreed and the first thing they did was run to the media to tell them that the president is so much his own man that he disregarded their advice.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Washington, DC, you don’t become important by boasting you boss ignored you. You become important by being the voice of reason who convinced your boss to to the right thing despite his instincts and the advice of the morons you work with.

What we have here is just another example of the White House propaganda machine inventing stories out of whole cloth to shape Obama’s image as a decisive leader rather than a pathetic [derogatory term for female pudendum].