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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- This was not in the Barack Obama playbook.
• The resignation under fire of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Friday did not follow the usual arc of a crisis in the Obama administration. Time and again in the face of eruptions the president has preferred to not get sucked into the drama, to not cede in the heat of the moment, but to send in fixers and have the bloodletting occur in due course.
• Instead, Shinseki tendered his resignation at the height of a political clamor for his departure and as revelations of systemic delays in veterans' patient care mounted by the day. Shinseki left even before the review Obama had ordered of the VA problems was completed.
• For Obama, there was little doubt that his decision to let Shinseki go was painful. As he spoke Friday morning in the White House briefing room, he appeared somber, even grief-struck.
• "He is a very good man," Obama said of the former four-star Army general and Vietnam veteran. "I don't just mean he's an accomplished man. I don't just mean that he's been an outstanding soldier. He's a good person who's done exemplary work on our behalf."
• ___

• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs became an explosive political story this week, culminating with the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
• The final straw appeared to be a report that described chronic wait times at the Phoenix hospital and found that about 1,700 veterans in need of care were "at risk of being lost or forgotten." The VA and independent investigators with the Office of Inspector General are still in the process of uncovering problems at dozens of other VA facilities around the country while some lawmakers are calling for criminal probes.
• As the investigations unfold, The Associated Press reached out to veterans in Arizona and several other states to recount their experiences with VA medical care. Some described delays and oversights. Others said they were pleased with their

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