The killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden is a major victory for President Barack Obama, showing, once again, that maybe he is ready for the presidency after all.
The last phrase is facetious because all the pundits, especially on the right side of the aisle, constantly raise questions about his experience, his world view and even his citizenship.
How quickly one forgets that his predecessor, George W. Bush, was in charge when U.S. forces missed Bin Laden in Tora Bora. He also launched an unnecessary war into Iraq based on faulty intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to exist.
The news today is undeniable. Even Fox News seems to be playing it straight. It is a major victory for the U.S. and for Obama.
In time, the more delusional elements of the right wing will likely claim that Bin Laden is not dead after all. They still believe that Obama was not born in the U.s. and is not entitled to be U.S. president, Hawaii birth certificate notwithstanding.
But these are the same people who believe that the $12 trillion swing from a budget surplus with adequate revenues when Bill Clinton left office to debt today. Two recessions were part of the problem, reports yesterday’s Washington Post, but Bush was responsible for more of the shift than Obama with his Iraq and Afghan Wars, Medicare drug shifts, and, of course, a $1.7 trillion loss in tax revenue due to tax cuts mostly for the rich. Obama is responsible for only about 6 percent of the shift from riches to rags (but not if you listen the James A. Bacon Jr. and his cabal).
Not two weeks ago, the right-wingers were ripping Obama apart for supposedly mishandling popular uprisings against Middle East dictators. He was too soft, too incompetent, makes the wrong decisions. Apparently, Obama made the right one when he had the sense not to share intelligence about Bin Laden’s whereabouts with the Pakistanis.
Imagine the uproar had the mission failed.
Peter Galuszka
