Cue Obama's 2nd-Term Scandals

It's all begun, and it's no big surprise to Dana Milbank: "Four months into a fresh four years, President Obama is already assuming the familiar crouch of a scandal-struck second-termer," Milbank writes in the Washington Post. Yesterday saw Obama taking just one question from American media during a press conference with David Cameron; that meant "the president had no risk of facing a follow-up." He talked about the IRS scandal as an outsider, but his approach may not do him much political good.

By avoiding immediate action like firing IRS staff, he's doing just what he did with Benghazi: Instead of getting "out in front of the scandal," he's "left himself at the mercy of events." The current uproar over Benghazi is indeed a "sideshow," as Obama said, "but his administration wrote the script for this sideshow by not getting the details out quickly." The White House said it made just a small change to talking points on the issue, and it initially kept quiet about emails revealed to Congress. "If Obama wishes to avoid the endless scandals that plague many second-term presidents, he needs to say more sooner." Click for Milbank's full column. (More Dana Milbank stories.)