[00rion]

There's another possibility. The NSA has blackmailed Obama into protecting their interests. If Obama makes substantial changes to the NSA and then is outed for something that the NSA would have known about, he may have been blackmailed.

[hga]

Well discussed in this related topic sub-thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7070045

I and many others simply don't buy that premise in our modern no shame culture.