An easy mark

Lee Smith writes at The Weekly Standard about Ahmed Muhammad, aka “clock boy.

it wasn’t a real bomb. No one got hurt. We just got played for suckers, especially Obama. It’s instructive that the president of the United States got played worse than anyone since it’s a typically American story, in spite of the Middle Eastern flavor.

Some have conjectured, perhaps wildly, that Ahmed’s father is working on behalf of Islamist parties. Who knows? The reality is that the episode won him a meeting with major Islamist figures, like the prime minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu and the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir. In fact, Mohamed al-Hassan Mohamed wanted to challenge Bashir for the presidency in the 2010 elections, but the Butcher of Darfur, as the accused war criminal who has ruled Sudan since 1989 is popularly known, wouldn’t have it. Did Mohamed’s political aspirations set the clock-scam in motion? Well, now he’s got personal contacts—and photographs!—with an impressive roster of world leaders. And his son is a role model—persecuted by racist Americans and welcomed back to the region by adoring fans. How is Bashir going to prevent a hero’s father from running for office next time out? Surely, he’s in line for a ministerial position—and the money that will follow as a consequence.

...American folklore as well as our classic literature—from Herman Melville through Hammett and down to David Mamet—makes plain a simple fact: No one is ever conned against their will. Rather, the victim’s vanity is the central ingredient in the confidence scheme. And that’s why it was so easy to play the president. Did he really have to tweet an invitation to Ahmed to come to the White House before he knew the whole story? As Ricky Roma says in Glengarry Glen Ross, “you never open your mouth till you know what the shot is.” And why after Ahmed and his family met with Bashir didn’t Obama rescind the invitation? What’s this kid doing meeting with a mass murderer? Tell Ahmed he’s not at this time welcome to visit the White House.

Obama didn’t walk away because he never does, not from Ahmed and his father and not from the Iranians over the nuclear deal. He says he’s got as much to worry about as anyone with the nuclear deal since his name is on it. And that’s precisely the issue—he doesn’t understand the cards and the chips he holds, and the chair he sits in, are not his. Rather, he is risking the interests and the prestige of the country he was elected to lead for the sake of his own vanity. Yes the president is very vain, which is what makes him such an easy mark, every time.

Read more here.