Back in March, we noted that numerous media figures had highlighted claims that President Obama's “plate” is too “full,” suggested he has “bit off more than he can chew.” Since the unsuccessful Christmas Day terrorist attack, conservative media figures have taken this meme in a new direction, asserting that the administration was unable to predict the attempted attack because they were too “distracted” by domestic priorities.

Fox & Friends' Gretchen Carlson advanced the theme today, claiming there are “people asking” if the White House was “too distracted” by “health care reform and cap and trade” to properly focus on national security. Similarly, The Washington Times' online poll question of the day asks, “Has President Obama's domestic agenda prevented him from properly addressing the terrorism threat against the United States?” while Joseph Curl's article in the paper uncritically channels the Republican Party's answer of “Yes.”

This is ridiculous for any number of reasons (for instance, it seems unlikely that the CIA and State Department didn't keep the alleged terrorist off the plane because they were too busy trying to pass health care), but here's my take: If the Obama administration has been negligent for trying to simultaneously handle issues of domestic policy and national security, how horribly derelict in their duty was the Bush administration?

After all, in the fall of 2001 - in the very months after the September 11 attacks! - the Bush White House was working with congressional leaders on passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the conference report of which passed in December of that year. America was under attack, and yet the president was busy trying to restructure the national education system!

Then in 2003, the Bush White House was “distracted” pushing a new massive piece of domestic legislation, Medicare Part D. And in 2005, they took their eye off the national security ball to try to “reform” Social Security.

It's amazing we're all still alive. Somehow, the federal government is capable of handling a number of different priorities at the same time. Go figure.