President Obama keeps turning up the internal heat regarding the terrorist attack on Flight 253. In both his public statements and in virtually all statements made by administration officials, the emphasis has been on a "mix of human and systemic failures" that allowed the attack to take place rather than on the Islamic terrorists - oops sorry, "isolated extremist" - who planned and carried out the attack.

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This blame-America-first strategy is certainly not new to this president. But this time the Americans he's seeking to blame are under his own command and have been for a full year. So the question is who will be the scapegoat; the administration member thrown under the bus so that President Obama can deny responsibility for the systematic failure and continue to deny that we are a nation at war? Here are some of the possible candidates:

Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security: An obvious front runner for scapegoat as her department is the one charged with keeping the homeland safe and she didn't help her cause with her "the system worked/the system didn't work" flip flop. But making Secretary Napolitano the scapegoat would only prove President Obama's critics were right when they balked at her lack of experience and questionable priorities; most notably that report which warned of rightwing extremists defined as returning war veterans.

Leon Panetta, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: The CIA has already jumped in front of this scandal, rejecting accusations that it failed to share vital information with other US intelligence agencies that might have helped prevent the Christmas Day attack. According to CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano, "We learned of Abdulmutallab in November, when his father came to the US embassy in Nigeria and sought help in finding him. We did not have his name before then." (source) Plus Director Panetta already successfully defended his agency against charges by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) when the Democratic machine tried to claim the CIA misled Congress about enhanced interrogation techniques. Someone with a proven track recorded of debunking false accusations may not be the best choice for a scapegoat now.

Michael Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center: That same CIA spokesman who preemptively defended his own agency was quick to add, “We also forwarded key biographical information about [Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab] to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)." The NCTC is the government office tasked with compiling and integrating intelligence from various US agencies and Director Leiter is a holdover from the Bush administration. I'm sure that alone will get him plenty of votes for scapegoat.

Jim DeMint, Republican Senator from South Carolina: Mr. DeMint has delayed a vote on President Obama's choice for head of the Transportation Security Administration, demanding a debate rather than allowing the Democrats to ram the nomination through. This almost year old request for debate regarding nominee Erroll Southers (most specifically his plans to unionize the agency responsible for airport security) is what some Democrats now claim caused the attack on Flight 253. But, while blaming a republican seems like the perfect solution, President Obama can't fire Senator DeMint and therefore can't give the illusion that he has stopped Islamic terrorism by making a personnel change.

After these four individuals, the field remains crowded with low level bureaucrats, all level operatives and airport employees from several countries. It could take time for the president and his cronies to pick just the right sacrificial lamb, but have no doubt Mr. Obama will not be blaming the "isolated extremist" with the explosives in his shorts or himself.