May 3, 2011 - 9:31 pm
Is it possible that the Adminstration has bungled things so badly since the announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, that not only has Obama lost the news cycle, not only has Obama added fuel to the conspiracy fires, not only has Obama managed to take a particularly American moment and make it an expose on his multi-cultralist agenda, but now we learn that it took him 16 hours to make the decision to kill Bin Laden and, as Roger L. Simon is reporting on the Tatler, he might not have given the “kill” order in the first place?
Is it?
And Barbara Walters thinks Republicans should be scared to face Obama in 2012? Scared of this amateur hour, embarrassing, insulting, ignorant nonsense?
What do you think? Let it loose!
Churchill fought all of World War II and the British folk still tossed him out when the war was done. People loved him but that only goes so far. Democracy is fickle…
This is simple.
It’s still the economy, stupid.
Gas, food, clothing prices are skyrocketing.
The deficit is at unsustainable levels and *must* be addressed.
We are in three wars.
Spending is out of control.
Foreclosures at record numbers.
Record unemployment.
States, towns, cities are out of money.
Inflation is coming.
It is safe to say that virtually everyone in this country knows someone broke, unemployed, or on the battlefield. And for the most part, people vote with their wallets.
@ Black…..you are absolutely right! Smoke and mirrors and sleight of hand. We are careening off the cliff and have been distracted by an emotional drama of the “O”s making. On just their word and some pics of blood on a floor.
I am even more disgusted than you, but I poured most of my bile in comments at Roger’s post. I think the unravelling of the White House lies and propaganda, coupled with the disgusting pandering to the Moderate Muslim terrorists (it’s not working very well, is it Mr. Hussein Obama?) is obscene. This should have been a slam-dunk super positive story for America, but this alien-minded bastard of a president has managed to totally F it up in a mere three days.
No, to answer your question, it is not possible. For starters, the news cycle is still fixed on the death of Osama bin Laden. To the extent the administration has “added fuel to the conspiracy fires” you should be grateful for the prompt information they have provided, and understand that it takes time to properly debrief people and determine the facts. As for proof, I want to see some, too, but I’m not going to cry foul just because they didn’t release it immediately. Other considerations factor in to when and what proof is released. I think it’s smart not to antagonize more terrorist attacks by having pictures of a dead bin Laden on the internet so soon after the news of his death broke. The administration is wise to let things simmer down. If you could get past your own partisan-based cognitive dissonance about Obama getting something right, you might realize that you should tone it down for a bit before shifting back into full hater mode.
Truly, it is your amateur hour that frightens me. The Obama administrations policies of doubling-down on our Afghanistan/Pakistan efforts has led to the death of public enemy number 1. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat and give credit where it is due.
I think the president has been given credit for getting osama. What’s pathetic is the lack of a coherent post-operation PR plan, the resulting conflicting stories about what happened on the ground, the point being made that osama was buried in accordance with islamic dictates and so on. Like when zarkawi was bagged, it was bang, we got the dude, here’s a pic and the last thing he saw before expiring was an American operator standing over him. No touchy feely, “I don’t want to make the terrorists mad at me” crap. They’re already mad and they’ve already made up their mind to do us harm where possible.
Obama should have sent Seal Team Six after Goldman Sachs instead of putting the bankers in charge of the economy.
He had nothing to do with the Osama takedown. I think we all know Obama wouldn’t have been golfing if he knew this was going down. I know he likes to golf and not work but he’s also obsessed w/his image and Candidate Obama would have been all dolled up for the cameras had he known this was happening.
Leon Panetta is the hero. I remember him sticking up for the C.I.A. back when the waterboarding crap came up. He’s a stand up guy. Hillary too. She has more balls than our President ever will.
unfortunately,the truth won’t come out till years from now. It will b too late then.
Q: Why is it when something goes wrong certain people say it’s Obama’s fault, but when things go right he deserves no credit?
A: Petty politics. You know if this operation went sour you would have skewered the President. The President took great political and geopolitical risk authorizing this mission.
Whereas W Bush said he “truly did not care” about Osama bin Laden in 2002, took us to Iraq to hunt for fictitious WMDs costing taxpayers trillions, Obama authorized more Predator drone kills in his first year than Bush did during his entire Presidency and made good on the strategy he campaigned on for taking out bin Laden.
President Obama kept a good poker face all last weekend after authorizing the mission Friday night. Had he not continued his tradition of golfing on Sundays, it would have tipped his hand. Please, enjoy this moment without the petty politics. Bin Laden’s death is great moment for America. I can understand not wanting to thank Obama for his role as Commander in Chief, but have some decency and stop with the hateful rhetoric. It spoils the moment for us patriotic Americans.
I am more interested in the truth and the facts than how it makes our President look. If he dawdled and left the decision to others, that should be something you want to know. If you don’t want to know the facts of the matter, than you can’t be a serious person.
I, too, am glad Bin Laden is dead. But if there is procrastination and lack of courage in the White House, I want to know that too.
Ah, but Bob, had things gone wrong, this gave him reason to toss Panetta under the bus. By not making decisions but running to get in front of the good ones, Obama makes himself look golden – to those who do not see that he is actually gilded dross.
Dear PoliticsOfBoob:
I love my country more than I hate our President. I give credit where credit is due. Why is that such a problem? I don’t disagree with the President just because I dislike him and I want to be contrary. I have supported him on decisions I agree with and I was sure to be very vocal regarding that support.
I’m a huge fan of how this was handled- for the most part. I just feel like Leon Panetta should get the credit for the takedown. Obama is a hands off President. That’s a fact. I hate it that he sucks but he does. I wish he was awesome but he’s not. I wish he loved his country but I just don’t think he does.
As for your comment on BUSH’s remark as pertaining to Bin Laden….. let’s put into context since it’s obvious you didnt read it in it’s entirety….
“I don’t know where [Osama bin Laden] is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him to be honest with you … And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.”
— George Bush, October 2004 (via peterfeld)
Q Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? Also, can you tell the American people if you have any more information, if you know if he is dead or alive? Final part — deep in your heart, don’t you truly believe that until you find out if he is dead or alive, you won’t really eliminate the threat of —
PRESIDENT BUSH : Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he’s alive at all. Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not; we haven’t heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is — really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission.
Terror is bigger than one person. And he’s just — he’s a person who’s now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He’s the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is — as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide — if, in fact, he’s hiding at all.
It took Barry 6 months to give his Afghanistan commanders the troops they requested and even then he short changed them so no surprise it took him 16 hours to decide to off weird beard. Obama deserves less credit than he is getting. This originated during Bush’s term back in 2007. Bush was the one that doubled SpecOps by 50% and Bush was the one who made sure SpecOps got the budget they needed and the CIA under Bush got the ball rolling. All Barry did was sign off on paperwork. The CIA & Navy SEALs deserve the majority of the credit. Obama gets props for signing off on the mission but gets an epic fail award for politicizing the mission that night with his statement, an epic fail for doing more than dumping OBL’s body in the ocean and an legendary epic fail for changing the story to suit the moment. We killed him because he was armed, no wait, we killed him because he was going for his AK47, no wait we killed him just because…
Bush was the one who wasted trillions of our tax dollars in Iraq. Super-Duper Pooper Scooper legendary epic fail. Here’s why AJ’s analysis is laughable: the President does not make the budget. Yes, we can thank the Democratic 2007 Congress for that. Furthermore, we need to make the distinction between the size of the budget and the efficiency of how the budgeted items are used. Did Bush catch bin Laden in 2007 or 2008? No. Did he care to?… President Obama commanded our armed forces more effectively than Bush ever did. Americans are feeling even more proud to be an American today because of Obama, our intelligence services, and armed forces. And as a rebuttal to those saying he’s taking all the credit for himself, do you really want him to give a shout out to all those who helped make bin Laden’s death possible and in so doing make them a target for repercussions?
Trillions? Where’d you learn math, public school? It’s Obama who tripled our national debt. You’d be surprised at how small a portion of our national budget goes toward the military (even at war) and how large a portion goes to entitlements. Meh, but why am I talking to you? Not like you’d believe me or anything.
It was Bush’s administration that pushed Congress to allocate the money to SpecOps that was needed for them to grow that’s why SpecOps was able to grow by 50%. That’s why there’s 2500 of the best in the world. As I said, this info that started this whole thing came about in 2007. Bush said he never stopped looking for OBL, maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. OBL could have been more useful alive as a boogey man used to promote the gov’t's Middle East agenda. Ironic how Barry got him after OBL outlived his usefulness. We went to Afghanistan because OBL was there. We went to Iraq because of WMD claims and OBL was there but the latter proved untrue. No further use for the boogey man so they took him out. Ultimate Clinton is at fault because he had 10 opportunities to kill Bin Laden and didn’t take the shot.
Let’s be clear. Obama did not take 16 hours to decide to kill bin Laden. He took 16 hours to decide to send two helicopters full of Navy Seals into a country that is a nominal “ally,” that possesses nuclear weapons, without informing them, to attack a compound where there was only circumstantial evidence that bin Laden was there. The intelligence could have been wrong, or it could have been right, but bin Laden might not have been there at the time, or something could have gone wrong with the mission. If the mission failed, his presidency would not recover. It was truly an “all-in” moment. If wanted to sleep on it, I think that’s ok.
Didn’t they have a good idea that OBL was in Pakistan since last fall? Wouldn’t you expect that those considerations had been well hashed over before the “16 hours”?
I’ve always felt a person’s body language was a very good indicator of state of mind as well as general outlook. Note the pic that was released by the WH of the group assmbled in the Situation Room: Obama’s shrunken hunch in the corner was, to me, a clear sign the man was at the very least ambivalent about the action taking place. Contrast that with Hillary Clinton’s affect: huge contrast between her anxious but hopeful pose and Obama’s look of deep reluctance. Why the WH thought that particular pic was a good one for PR is beyond me. Obama looks like he was dragged into this affair…
I thought the same thing.
The first time I saw the pic I never even noticed him…my take on it seems his face expresses concern how this will play to the Arab world, and the unsourced (likely) Arab donations that got him into the White House to advance their causes.
He might be imagining $$$ going into the drink along with Osama’s body, if it is Osama’s body.
Wow, is anyone noticing a strong uptick in the number of Obama defenders visiting PJM lately? At least we know one part of his organization is still going strong!
First, the killing of OBL is a great thing for America. If President Obama ordered it, he does, in fact, deserve credit. If he didn’t, then you would have to admit that he is a small, petty man.
Second, if he didin’t want to “inflame” anyone, he should have never said he was going to release pictures in the first place. Whatever his reasons are, saying you’re going to release them and then hedging looks weak, as does promising that this “perverter of the peaceful religion of Islam” (as I am told every terrorist is) got a “proper Islamic burial.”
Finally, by all accounts, doubling down in Afghanistan had nothing to do with OBL’s death– that would only ring true if American forces fighting in Afghanistan had killed OBL in Afghanistan; in fact, it was programs put in place by Bush (and intelligently continued and slightly expanded by Obama, in spite of his rhetoric and his campaign promises) that brought OBL to his deserved end.
Thursday’s trip to New York is pretty tiresome; it’s not exactly VE Day. He did invite Bush to come along, which was pretty nice, although his constant talk of unity seems like a desperate attempt to get people to like him again. I’m just sick of the guy.
Barack Obama is about to be used as a floor mop by Grizzly Team 6.
Consider now the possibility of a release of a UBL “death” photo.
It has all the same procrastinating and indecision that were part of the original mission. I have to wonder if they think they can continue the “glow” by dragging it out with a promised “photo” that appears to always be “over the horizon” (like communism). They did exactly that with the “birthers,” so why not do a repeat ?
As for the sensitivities, doesn’t anybody think that killing him was insensitive enough. After screwing with the narrative, they now even have it looking like the shot down a defenseless UBL … like a mad dog. I don’t think the “he may have had a bomb under his clothes” story line is going to cut it.
If they really want UBL to be forgotten, let him go. Release the “death photo,” convincing those who can be convinced that UBL is dead, and close the bloody thing out. Instead, they have made a political calculation that they can bask in the glow of a killing, like a KKK mob after a lynching, and somehow show that they are “sensitive” by not releasing the bloody “photo.” Oh, please.
According to one news report from Pakistan, UBL’s 12-year-old daughter who was living in the house said her father was captured and killed; everyone in the house was unarmed. Is this the true picture?
In the past month, our government has killed the family of Libya’s head of state in an effort to assassinate the leader and killed an unarmed UBL and one other person believed to be UBL’s son…We haven’t declared war on Libya or Pakistan, yet we invaded to kill targets of our government. There was no trial or court martial that declared the death sentence. We are happy that UBL is dead because we believe news reports and politicians over the past 10 years that told us he is an evil man who inspired the attacks on us.
Even my better half sees nothing wrong with UBL’s assassination. Am I the only person in the US who wonders who will be next on the list of people who will be killed without a trial or a chance to prove their innocence? Is our Constitution really a relic and no longer a blueprint for freedom and justice?
Correction, NATO forces killed Qadaffi’s sons. US law prohibits targeting heads of state outside of wars. However it does state we can and will use any means necessary to eliminate someone deemed a threat to the United States which justifies entering Pakistan and killing Bin Laden as we were at war with Al-Qaida.
The Constitution works just fine as a blueprint. It’s not a suicide pact, it doesn’t have the revulsion of modern ‘progressives’ about fighting a war to win it, and it invests the President with powers of Commander-in-Chief.
Getting rid of euphemisms like ‘community organizing’ and ‘armed struggle’, and admitting that war is part of the human experience, will do wonders for addressing the situation for what it is. It’s corrosive maladies such as political correctness that form the greatest threats to our country, because they don’t even allow calling situations by frank and proper terms.
The way I see it, the more Team Obama tries to suck up to the electorate so they can keep their jobs past 2012, the more they demonstrate, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they are just too bleedin’ incompetent to be trusted to babysit kittens.
They really believe that they can spend our way back to prosperity, when every head of household in the country knows that is ridiculous. This explains why the Obamas were, it is alleged, about to declare personal bankruptcy before he got the nomination (they couldn’t budget her $300K+ salary and his Senatorial wages into a balanced household budget).
Somehow, someone or some group of someones convinced the Golfer in Chief that getting UBL with a SEAL team was a lead pipe cinch. Go for it, kill him, bring out the body for photos and DNA. Show the world we caught the %#$&^. So far, so good. Then someone mentioned a funeral. Sane military minds started tearing their hair out (hard to do with a military haircut).
Then someone suggested disposing of the body at sea to make it impossible to recover, and to eliminate the possibility of a shrine. Bald and bloody military people try to explain that it’s a good idea, but not yet. If all the post-mission planning was about how to prove to the world that UBL was dead at the hands of US Special Forces, someone in TeamObama subverted it all. Now even I don’t believe they got UBL. If he was really dead, they’d show the photo. If he was really dead, they’d release the DNA test results with the mitochonrial DNA match to his mother and the sibling matches.
The ship should have taken the scenic route home while releasing all the proof. Government officials & their guests could be flown out to meet the ship for silly Old West outlaw-trophy photos.
The silly funeral could have been held in the middle of the Atlantic just before they made port, after they’d been chumming for a day. If any Muslim whined that holding the body (probably in a cooler) was against Muslim tradition, we’d reply that it was our tradition that naked aggression against civilian populations is a bad thing and if UBL wouldn’t respect our traditions, we were under no obligation to respect his. Then the proper washing of the body and the white shrouding is a nod to the deceased’s faith, but the burial at sea is a military necessity.
Team Obama can’t do anything right, and the longer they stay in office, the more they prove it.