Oh, ouch, Mr. President, these barbs will sting

Somewhere within the faculty lounge environs otherwise known as the Obama White House, a starry-eyed Obamatron puts down his pumpkin spice latte and says: “Dude, with friends like old man Panetta, who needs enemies?”

Leon Panetta has written an explosive new memoir called “Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace.”

It isn’t the first time a former Obama insider has written a book critical of the president. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates left the president’s inner circle and penned “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War.”

After Obama ordered troops to surge in Afghanistan, Gates wrote that he thought the reluctant wartime president didn’t “believe in his own strategy.”

While Gates bruised the president’s credibility, Team Obama weathered the story by whispering to the media how Gates is, you know, a not-to-be-trusted Republican member of the “Team of Rivals” and therefore should be discounted.

But now comes Panetta. He won’t be dispatched so easily.

Panetta served 16 years in Congress. In 1989, he became the chairman of the House Budget Committee, then Bill Clinton’s first budget director and eventually Clinton’s chief of staff.

He then served Barack Obama as head of the CIA. The New York Times called him “the man who bears much of the responsibility for keeping the country safe.” He’s a Democrat’s Democrat. His loyalty is superseded only by his loyalty to the country.

Panetta’s criticism is going to sting, and it’s going to stick. Although he’s civil in his assessments, the end result to Obama’s legacy will be brutal.

Panetta’s book covers a lot of years in his career (more than you ever wanted to know about the Clinton years — both serving the unfaithful Clinton and the enabler Clinton). That part looks like a good snuggle-read for a cold winter day after your football team is out of contention. But the parts of the book that deal with the Obama years make for a fall thunderstorm kind of a read that shoots periodic bolts of lightning up the posterior of the alleged “leader” of the free world.

Obama’s lack of passionate leadership is the burr under Panetta’s saddle.

The president failed to keep a presence in Iraq. Panetta argued for it, writing, “it could become a new haven for terrorists to plot attacks against the United States.”

In an interview, Panetta said contrary to the rosy talk coming out of the White House, the war against terrorism is far from over.

“I think we’re looking at kind of a 30-year war” that will span beyond Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan into Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and other Muslim hot spots throughout the world.

He also thought the Bowe Bergdahl swap was a “bad deal” and probably an illegal deal. One terrorist for Bergdahl might have been OK, he writes, but not five for one.

Panetta writes that Obama lacks the “fire” to be an effective leader. He failed to “lead Congress out” of the budget impasse. Then he concocted the sequester deal, which only pushed hard decisions down the road.

“Too often, in my view, the president relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader,” Panetta wrote.

And last but not least, Panetta scorches the president for chickening out on his red-line threat with Syria. It was a “blow to American credibility,” Panetta writes.

Bashar Assad used chlorine gas on his people, and Obama let him get away with it. The president’s “hesitation and half-steps have consequences,” Panetta writes.

“Rediscovering our gift for leadership won’t be simple,” Panetta concludes. “Those who serve must learn again to subordinate their self-interest to a larger national interest.”

Panetta doesn’t go further in the book. And I am no psychiatrist. But the between-the-lines conclusion of Panetta’s observations is that the unreasonable amount of golf, the parties, the relentless fundraising, the almost quarterly vacations and the general disengagement and malaise are signs this president isn’t up to the task.

He’s smart enough and he cares enough, Panetta points out. But, he’s missing the drive to lead the United States through the big issues of the day.

This criticism will leave a lasting mark on the Obama legacy.

Sherman Frederick, former publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and member of the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame, writes a column for Stephens Media. Read his blog at www.reviewjournal.com/columns-blogs/sherman-frederick.