With all of the hype over the United States’ World Cup team stumbling its way into the knockout, one might lose sight of troubling developments in Iraq, Syria, and the U.S. domestic landscape. Fear not, though: Fox News panelist Keith Ablow remains ever vigilant, seeing through World Cup Fever and the Legal Pot Haze to keep the focus on the Obama administration, where it belongs.

Speaking Thursday on Fox News’ “Outnumbered,” Dr. Keith Ablow said he wasn’t taken in by the Obama administration’s Look Over There routine. The big focus on the World Cup – the most popular sporting event in the world – and advancements on the cannabis legalization front are just – no pun – smokescreens meant to distract Americans from what’s really important.

“I’m suspect,” Ablow told the assembled Fox News panel. “I am suspect because, here’s the thing: why, at a time when there are so many national and international issues of such prominence – I’m a little suspect of another bread-and-circus routine. Let’s roll out the marijuana, pull back the laws, and get people even more crazy about yet another entertainment event.”

As Talking Points Memo notes, the four other co-hosts weren’t quite as vigilant as Ablow, defending the World Cup by interrupting him and asking, “What’s wrong with you?”

Ablow remained steadfast on the nefarious underpinnings of the 2014 World Cup, saying, “This is a way to distract people. This is like Rome. I can see why Obama would love the World Cup.”

The Fox News panelist didn’t elaborate on exactly which issues the 2014 World Cup and legal pot might be distracting Americans from, but he may have had in mind the recent disturbing developments in Iraq, which see that country at risk of breaking into pieces. As the World Cup progresses, Iraq’s neighbor Syria regresses, and Obama today requested $500 million from Congress to train and arm opposition forces in that country. There’s also, presumably, Benghazi somewhere in Ablow’s mind.

ISIS is on the march in Iraq, and Obama wants you smoking pot and watching the 2014 World Cup, according to Fox News panelist Keith Ablow.

Skeptics may scoff at Ablow’s claim of “bread and circuses,” but the operational savvy of the Obama administration has been well established. For some, it may stretch credulity to posit that, back in 2003, then-Illinois State Senator Obama was pulling strings to get the 2014 World Cup hosted in Brazil, thus having World Cup games airing at an hour when Americans are awake. Just in time to draw attention away from a disintegrating Iraq, we might add. It may also stretch credulity to posit that Obama is reaching down from the Executive Branch to twist the arms of state legislatures to get pot legalized in a few states.

But, if your credulity has not yet stretched to the breaking point, you could survey the American landscape and see a perfect storm of cannabis and football. As the Inquisitr has pointed out before, Americans are increasingly open to the idea of legal pot, even as some stalwarts try to hold the line. Meanwhile, U.S. ratings for the 2014 World Cup are higher than those for any previous incarnation of the sporting event.

Bread and circuses, indeed. Put down the bong, America, and stop hoping the home team can pull off a tie. Forget the World Cup, and look at the World! Pressing issues demand your attention. Ablow just can’t remember exactly what they are.