Growing In Office

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | May 2nd, 2011 at 09:35 AM |

RESIZE: AAA

Say what you will about President Obama, but it is hard to imagine two years ago he would have taken unilateral military action in Pakistan without telling the Pakistani government. He has grown in office.

Ben Domenech has a good take on this over at Real Clear Politics and notes pretty well that Obama continuing to operate out of George Bush’s playbook, the very one he intended to throw out, got us to where we are.

Whatever you may think of Obama’s domestic policies or diplomatic decisions, his approach to national security has been largely wise and overwhelmingly vindicated thus far. His reconsideration of the promise to shut down Gitmo, his shifting of the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed back to a military tribunal, and his reliance on several key personnel under George W. Bush who may disagree (and indeed have disagreed publicly) with him on other matters – Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Gen. David Petraeus chief among these, but hardly alone – have projected a far more stable, responsible, and moderate national security approach.

This has not come without cost, mostly from Obama’s left flank, where many of his supporters have criticized him for going back on his word. But it’s now reported that the bin Laden raid began with the interrogation of a detainee roughly four years ago, and the CIA continued to follow this lead under Obama, in August discovering a compound which stood out in its neighborhood for a number of startling reasons.

My, my how governing is so different from campaigning.

Tags: Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden

COMMENTS

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acat

than I am in whether there’s any political hay to be made of it. i.e. is there a chance that the Kossaks and their ilk would not support Obama ?

Mew
CrabCakes

…unless you were listening when he was campaigning:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/01/us-usa-politics-obama-idUSN0132206420070801
martin3996

I hear that a terrorist leader is dead, but I feel uneasy, not joyful. I am very glad he is gone, though. Wasn’t this convenient timing for the President? Why didn’t this happen a year or two ago? Why now? It couldn’t have taken our intelligence people that long to figure out who was in that compound. What forced Obama’s hand now? Was…n’t it a little strange that there was a citizen blogging the operation in Pakistan? Why isn’t there proof of his death? I am also uncomfortable with the press naming the SEAL team and their hometown for the world to hear. I think retaliation is a real possibility, and the press has put this area (Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads) squarely on the map.
Aaron Gardner

Obama implies Pakistan would know.

“If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will,” Obama said.

Erick’s point is that not only was this unilateral in action, we also didn’t share the intelligence or the plan with Pakistan.
CrabCakes

I don’t see any such implication, though. In fact, at the time he was hammered by his Democratic primary opponents for potentially destabilizing Musharraf’s regime. He could have easily responded, “Oh, well of course we’ll tell him first,” to quell the criticism, but he didn’t. Instead, he doubled down.

In any case, I fail to see how anyone who heard those words come from Obama’s mouth would have find it “hard to imagine” that he would done what he precisely did.
CrabCakes

*In any case, I fail to see how anyone who heard those words come from Obama?s mouth would have found it ?hard to imagine? that he would have done what he precisely did.
coulterfan

Remember this?

“Last year (in 2008), when Barack Obama signaled his willingness to strike at senior al-Qaeda members hiding in Pakistan, in cases where the Pakistani government was incapable or unwilling to act, McCain described Obama?s position as ?na?ve.? Later this summer, McCain elaborated on this stance. Responding to a question from Larry King about whether he would strike at Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, McCain said ?I’m not going to go there. And here’s why, because Pakistan is a sovereign nation.” [McCain Campaign Statement, 10/27/08. ”
Aaron Gardner

Spin away.
CrabCakes

“Say what you will about President Obama, but it is hard to imagine two years ago he would have taken unilateral military action in Pakistan without telling the Pakistani government.”

No one is talking about telling Musharraf what we know. We’re talking about telling Musharraf what we’ll do. Eric’s sentence is about taking action without telling Pakistan, not about sharing actionable intelligence.

Like I said, you can think what you want and I don’t expect to change your mind. The last time I had a discussion with you, you decided to change the definition of “plurality” rather than admit that you’d used the wrong word (http://www.redstate.com/aarongardner/2009/11/18/president-plunge-polls-and-palin/).

I’ve got better things to do today.
mrbigw

When willy was in office his chiefs told him we know where this guy is,we have a plan, give us the clearance… Willy refused to leave a DNC fund raiser to take this trash out…

I’m sure O was dragged kicking and screaming to the meeting, but at least he gave the order..

W
Tbone

for the tragic events of 9/11, the long term damage that has been done to the fabric of America by Pelosi, Reid and Obama far overshadows the damage done by Osama.
coulterfan

Who famously said “So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. . .”

Not to mention, going into the WRONG country instead of even attempting to get Bin Laden.
johnt

downtown.[snark]
Somewhere there are liberals[?] uncomfortable with this, there just has to be. Their instinctive urges are to the abnormal.
Aaron Gardner
earlgrey

get groped at airports. What will change with OBL’s death.

I am glad he is gone, and for the fight against terror in general this is a good thing. I just wish that so much of the war against terror hasn’t become an attack on americans themselves.
regent2009

I am reminded of the old Dallas Cowboys. Jimmy Johnson built a dynasty and then left. Barry Switzer, a terrible coach, then took over. With Johnson’s players and Johnson’s system, he won a Super Bowl. But he was soon exposed once Johnson’s effect wore off.

The bottom line is that this happened through the policies of George Bush and Dick Cheney. They laid the groundwork with the Pakistanis and beefed up our military. I gave Obama credit for continuing those policies, but thats it. There is no doubt that his Ivy League degrees would have been useless had he had to design his own War on Terror,
acat
ceili_dancer

Al Queda is a large group, and OBL is not the head of operations. He’s a figurehead and a bank roller for the group. He also is the face of the group. There are a lot more bad people out there to take out before the world could breathe a little easier.
I don’t want to rain on YOUR guys parade and like Erick said, He’s President, but the real work was done by the men and women of our military and intelligence community. They deserve all of the credit.

Now, you might want to look at the mission statement of the site and get a clue.
BA Cyclone

We can give Obama credit, as Erick does here, for at least continuing the policies to get us to this day. Obama’s statement might lead one to politically believe these policies were new on 1/20/2009 but rational people know differently.

Obama continued wise policies he mostly maligned during his campaign. And he gave the “GO” and told Pakistan what happened, rather than asking permission.

Give credit where it’s due. Now we move to the next field of battle.
BA Cyclone

We can give Obama credit, as Erick does here, for at least continuing the policies to get us to this day. Obama’s statement might lead one to politically believe these policies were new on 1/20/2009 but rational people know differently.

Obama continued wise policies he mostly maligned during his campaign. And he gave the “GO” and told Pakistan what happened, rather than asking permission.

Give credit where it’s due. Now we move to the next field of battle.
Aaron Gardner
Tavern Keeper

is not anything to do with the action itself. We should all give credit where credit is due – Bush policies got us the information, Obama folks (although I hesitate to call them that, since surely most of the heavy lifting was done by career spooks and military personnel) pursued the leads, and the president signed off on what was by all accounts a very, very well executed operation. They got in and out in 40 minutes, killed the world’s most wanted man, and blew up a helicopter.

What I don’t agree with was announcing it to the whole world. I’ll be honest, I was one of the few who had continued to believe that we had actually gotten OBL way back at Tora Bora and didn’t announce it for reasons of reprisal and martyrdom. Which is exactly what I’m fearing now.

Yes, we have reason to be proud. I don’t exactly agree with taking to the streets to celebrate the death of a mass murder, but I don’t condemn it and I do totally understand it. Its a proud day for our country, and for many who lost loved ones on that terrible September morning a decade ago, maybe this will be some form of cathartic closure.

But for the greater good of the nation and our national interest, would it not have been better to announce it 10 years after the fact?

And I’m not saying that President Bush would have done anything different. I am glad the world is short one evil murderous rogue. I just wish we hadn’t made the announcement.

God bless our military and those undercover who work to keep us safe everyday.
msctex

I don’t think the man has grown one iota, Erick. More than likely a process that began back when Obama was voting “Present” in Illinois finally came to fruition, simple as that. Also, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn Bin Laden has been living comfortably in various places for most if not all of the time since 9/11, and this image of him struggling in a dank cave was for the benefit of his supporters worldwide. The man was an over-monied totem to the worst people on Earth; watching him fire a rifle was akin to watching Obama throw a baseball.

I’m making a conscious effort to be neither optimistic nor pessimistic, just realistically appraise the situation. And the result is that I would not be remotely surprised if down the road it turns out this happened in spite of Obama, rather than in any way because of him. The best-case scenario is that he did not actively get in the way. As for playing a true role in the capture, in terms of leadership or anything else. . .Doubtful at best. At most, Obama could be said to have allowed it.

It would be nice if I was wrong, by the way. I honestly hope I am, for the good of the country.
Marcus_Traianus

Several of the US helicopters took off from Pakistani airbases. It is not clear yet how much the Pakistani’s knew, but they knew something and this suggests some level of coordination.

I have also heard a lot of I, me, mines from Mr. Obama with a few shout out’s to the military. I don’t call that “growing in office”. More like a juvenile who has suddenly found a bigger soapbox and microphone.

Finally, one would like to believe the strong message here should be; if you decide to attack our country, we will pursue you no matter who is President of this nation and no matter how long it takes. We as a nation have long memories period. That was not the substance of Mr. Obama’s announcement. In fact he avoided important points about intelligence gathering from GITMO prisoners and other important details of the pursuit which pre-dated his administration.

I hardly would label any of this “growing in office”.

I will give Mr. Obama credit for making the call when it came. But that was an easy one a grade-schooler could have made.
http://www.marklaiminger.org Lammo

but if you believe “Bush lied” don’t you now have to say “Bush Lied, Osama Died”?
powertothepeople
http://www.marklaiminger.org Lammo

And I like it very much. I just didn’t want anyone to think that I believe “Bush lied”. Sometimes hard to be clear in a quick post. “They” want to blame Bush for everything they think is bad but they won’t give him one ounce of credit for the death of OBL, which is clearly good. I was trying to give “therm” a slogan they could run with.
1volunteer

Yes, we should give credit to him for this victory. However, I recall that for Obama’s first two years in office we heard the refrain of the fault of “the previous administration” from him and his minions. Will he now breathe one word of credit to President Bush for the work done in bringing UBL to justice?
Tbone

What a stupid and ignorant analogy. Switzer was 157?29?4 at Oklahoma with 12 Big 8 Championships and 3 National Championships in 16 years. That’s a winning percentage of .837. Name those with at least 100 wins with a better record.

In the NFL, in 4 years he was 40-24. His departure had far more to do with the idiocy of Jerry Jones and Aikman’s concussions than a failure as a head coach.

Switzer a terrible coach? Certainly not by his record and that is what counts.

Now, what was Obama’s record before he became President?
rowdydfw

I will certainly come together with all Americans congratulating our troops on a successful and safe mission that certainly needed to happen to justify a decade of occupation of Afghanistan in this search. And I will certainly come together with the New Yorkers in their celebration of the death of the 9/11 planner and will pray for SOME closure for the families.

However in the face of ALL Americans still losing their family members on a weekly basis on two occupational fronts and one totally unnecessary front I am going to reserve judgment on that ‘growth in office’ thing.

I am simply taking the stance of ‘watching the other hand.’ Barack Obama does NOTHING unless it is for the glorification of Barack Obama. He has not grown. Not in character, not in knowledge, and certainly not in promoting the unity of Americans, and has and will not ever acknowledge the exceptionalism of Americans, especially our military. He’s tanking in the polls and hasn’t a clue about US economics, how is this symbolic of Obama growth? He is attacking through scammed up lawsuits the very states who allow him to sit in our White House. Please tell me what ‘growth’ that represents? It did not take courage to do what he did regarding Osama bin Laden. The man is DESPERATE for a poll number! Especially in light of now trying to shove not one, but two faked up COLB’s at Americans he expects to trust him, while he does the exact opposite on every issue we face and pumps out lie after lie.

And if you will notice this morning this desperate man invoked the name of God several times, as all do when their ship is sinking into a mire of mud! Who’s he trying to fool? This is an indication of childishness, not personal growth.
regent2009

Switzer’s time at Oklahoma is like the election. He won by illegally paying players. Obama was a brilliant candidate, who else could a neophyte with ties to William Ayers have won. And like, Switzer at Oklahoma, he won by circumventing the rules, paying thugs at ACRON and the unions to get out the vote.
Aaron Gardner
skymutt

I’m a long time diarist and commenter on DailyKos… attacks on Obama from the left are common over there, but many of the attackers will admit when pressed that they will vote for Obama in 2012.

Even the ones that won’t say that are going to be susceptible to get caught up in the inevitable election politics– and that will cause them to vote for what they perceive to be the “lesser of two evils”. That;s my personal opinion.

Obama’s troubles in 2012 aren’t going to come from the left, they will come from the center if they come at all. He’s still got a lot of vulnerability on the economy, and his economic policies are vulnerable to criticism on many fronts– housing, TARP, stimulus, health care, etc. Gas prices definitely slowed the economy in Q1, and in the past, economies have not recovered quickly from major financial crises. The unresolved deficit issue, rising interest rates, the continued lousy housing market, slow jobs growth, the failure to solve immigration issues, continued trade imbalances– there is a lot of “stuff” out there that could be used to attack Obama in 2012.

Full disclosure: I’m a Democrat with a generally favorable view of Obama, with some exceptions on individual policies.
aesthete

Obama was on record as favoring a more bellicose stance against Pakistan — in contrast what was seen as Pres Bush’s more conciliatory stance.

However, I find it hard to believe that this change contributed significantly, if at all, to the capture of Osama: an operation this deep in Pakistan and this close to their military assets would have been impossible to conduct without some sort of assent from at least a branch of Pakistan’s government, and I also find it hard to believe that GWB would not have done the same thing as Obama. Furthermore, I find Obama’s policy in Pakistan dangerous in the extreme.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

Ehh, I’m not in the mood to tolerate Obama shilling. I have better things to do today as well.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

Oops. Did you forget you were supposed to be mobying?
aesthete

And shill or not, CC is right on this specific point.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

He was banned in this thread.

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/05/02/growing-in-office/#comment-107570
cobragotpole

But I’m sure redstate was making fun of Obama’s naivity when he said he would go into pakistan to get bin laden if that’s where he was. Just another example of why Obama isn’t a real liberal no matter how much conservative websites want to paint him as a peacenik hippie communist.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

At the time I was *with* Obama and Palin for saying we needed to into Pakistan.

At the time though I said I doubted he had the guts. And sure enough, until now, he’s been piddling around with drones.
powertothepeople

but I still think that had Obama not been 100% sure that Osama was in that compound and that this would distract from his political failures, he would have done nothing. He would have continued with the facade that he was doing something, drones, and that would have been the end of that.
aesthete

One of a handful of smart moves on the part of the Bush administration was not to focus on OBL, as if he was a Sauron-like figure whose demise would mean the destruction of Al-Qaeda. In the past years, OBL was likely more of a figurehead than an active part of decision-making, and his death won’t mean much from a strategic point of view. That is not to dampen the jubilation, but simply to state the truth of the impact of OBL’s death.
aesthete

saber-rattling with Pakistan; McCain wanted to preserve our relationship with Pakistan, idiosyncratic as it was. Considering the structure and location of the operation, I would be incredibly surprised if the Pakis weren’t in on this — meaning that we were likely cooperating with the Paks, not engaging in the useless saber-rattling promoted by Obama.

That is not to say that McCain would have been an improvement over Obama in all ways, or that he wouldn’t have frakked up (his support for going all in on Libya is proof enough of that), but you’re just wrong when it comes to Pakistan.
http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

Heh. Rube.
vermontneighbor

Obama complied.. Osama died

Mr Victory Lap can splash around today in W’s shadow. It’s to be expected. Let’s all be grateful he didn’t dither. Gratitude and more to our troops and intel for their remarkable courage, bravery… and results.
Aaron Gardner

No other country, not even Pakistan, was informed of any of this intelligence until after the raid to protect operational security.

See here
kestrel

for taking people’s eyes off the debt ceiling battle at the very time the tide is turning against Obama on this issue. How lucky for him.
acat

and the article sure goes to lengths to make it sound like the Pakistani government was not told of the raid … but do not explicitly state they were kept in the dark.

Two things from the article stick out. First, this was an area “.. where many retired military officers live..” but “.. the team did not encounter any local authorities.”

Statistically, this is pushing my suspension of disbelief.

My guess is the Pakistanis were told something was going to happen, just not what, and most importantly, not why.

Mew
aesthete

Osama is holed up for 5 years in a mansion that burns its own trash and has no internet/telephone in a relatively nice border military town in Pakistan with a military academy and a large commissioned officer population… and the Pakis don’t know about it? I call bs. Given that, and given that half of Pakistan’s ISI and military goes rogue if Pakistan just hands over OBL, I’m willing to bet that there was probably some communication between Pakistan and the US regarding at least a broad sketch of the attack. I doubt that we would send a chopper from Bagram out past Peshawar for a high-value target without the tacit support of the Pakistani government. For Christ’s sake, they were almost in China!
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

The scrambling of fighters was all an elaborate conspiracy.
Aaron Gardner
Tbone

every year by OU. I can understand that.

However, I do apologize for thinking you were just stupid and ignorant. You are obviously so much more than that, though not in a good way.
Common_Cents

I doubt we’ll know much of what really happened for quite awhile. They sure aren’t going to release anything they don’t feel helps intelligence and other future ops.
Aaron Gardner
aesthete

This was not an ordinary snatch, though. Again, I would be shocked that a) the Paks were not aware of the obvious discrepancy that the mansion in Abbottabad presented, and that b) this would eventually be found out by the US. It makes little intuitive sense to me that a US helicopter going out to this border town nowhere near Waziristan and the tribal areas would just get a generic jet scramble on Pakistan’s part. I am inclined to believe that some large, influential part of Pakistan’s government was informed or tipped-off in some way, or that there was some other form of wink-wink-nudge-nudgery going on. (Perhaps the lack of security surrounding OBL was a signal to the US?)

I’m not trying to say that the Pak government has sterling relations with us, just that it is not apparent that Obama’s stated policy preference of antagonism with Pakistan has improved upon the situation, much less led to the capture of OBL. The left (Obama included) was harping on the meme that some sort of inappropriately close relationship with Pakistan was behind Bush’s antipathy towards capturing OBL, and that just isn’t so.
jazzycmk

I’m no Obama fan, but I do believe in giving credit where it’s due, It looks as if his team really did its homework here. It seems they assessed all their options (bomb vs troops on the ground) and moved as quickly as they could once conditions were as optimal as possible (scrubbed mission on Saturday because weather was poor but went as soon as possible on Sunday).

I’m shocked that it seems we moved without giving notice to Pakistani authorities. For a leader we’ve accused of dithering, he was decisive here.

Obama and his staff have talked a lot about what they inherited from the Bush administration, but they also got a lot of good with the bad. Without the Bush-era policies, last night doesn’t happen.

Job well done Mr Presidents. Both of you.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
Aaron Gardner

I am done trying to stop you from looking foolish.
aesthete

Maybe you should tell me how many operations we’ve done in places closer to Kashmir and China than to Waziristan and the tribal areas without consent on Pakistan’s part.

Also, how an undeclared war with Pakistan would have made the operation more of a success.
Common_Cents

I’m sure there are plenty of omissions, misinformation etc…for good reason.
Aaron Gardner
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

What “border town” are you talking about? Because UBL was hiding out just outside Islamabad.
rickbull

The wacko left is at firedoglake.

Personally, I’m a staunch conservative married to a liberal democrat–that’s why I sympathize with Mary Matalin: my wife is almost as rabid as the Ragin’ Cajun.

Skymutt, you seem like a reasonable, level-headed person. I think we might eventually be able to sway you over to the “dark side.”

Getting back to the subject at hand, I think Obama’s real vulnerability is going to be demonstrating how his first four years in office has only brought about change for the worse. The far left wants to primary him, and will probably vote for the Socialist Party Candidate in November, 2012; the near-left will vote for Obama, and the moderate independents will probably be swayed to the right if we can find a viable candidate that doesn’t shoot himself in the foot.

Wish us luck.
aesthete

Abbottabad, which borders Kashmir (contested between China, India and Pakistan).
acat

See, that’s not in the article Aaron linked, which is what I was commenting on.

While Pakistan scrambling jets does appear to indicate they didn’t know, it doesn’t rule it out…

Depends especially on when they scrambled… before or after a number of retired military wondered why helicopters were landing at their neighbors’ compound, or why one of those helicopters exploded, or why there was gunfire …

The other odd part is that man-portable surface-to-air missiles would have been more of a threat, and faster to deploy.

Eh. Glomar* applies.

Mew

* Glomar Explorer, that is ..
rickbull

My own personal estimate was December, 2003, when the video distribution stopped, and OBL went entirely to “audio” tapes. My belief was the the CIA was making the audio tapes, paying a courier to deliver them, then “authenticating” them when “al-ja-zebra” release them on-air.

I also believed that Bush and Cheney knew he was dead, but kept it classified so as not to evoke the “martyr-effect.”

It remains to be seen how the public disclosure of OBL’s death affects the terror community and the civilized world.
rickbull
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

It may be on the border, but it’s also JUST north of the capital.
lineholder

that we will do what we set out to do to protect this country.

His response on foreign affairs prior to now has been such that I’ve been concerned he would set us up as a nation that wouldn’t be respected globally as being willing to protect themselves, which is not only dangerous but irresponsible given what is going on in other countries.
Doc Holliday

Their life philosophy is

helps America = hurts us
Republican did it = bad
Obama did it = good

1 and 3 can conflict once in a long while, like last night. But they find a way to make it work.
spainishirish

nt
Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday

Bush took a pretty bellicose stance towards Pakistan after 9/11, in fact he put the fear of Allah into Musharraf. Obama’s flaw was that no once believed him, and for good reason. Also, Bush did it privately.

As far as I am concerned, we should give next year’s Pakistan money to India, and do it in a formal presentation. Then stop sending money to either place other than to help India with counter terrorism.
Common_Cents

When presented with excellent intel what choice is there? seriously? I’m not saying giving a green light putting our side in harms way but that is their job and they do it well.

I am tired of the propaganda media saying how brave obama’s choice was. Hogwash. That’s what Presidents do.

There was no choice. If Obama would have scrapped it, the info would have gotten out that he failed to take advantage of the situation.
http://www.marklaiminger.org Lammo
skymutt

Thank you for saying so though

It would be very unlikely indeed for you to sway me over to a “dark side” candidate as far as where Obama is concerned. I am satisfied with his performance so far, and I think that a modest but noticeable recovery will be apparent to most by the election… that’s my hope, anyway, bolstered by the predictions of economic observers I respect like CalculatedRisk.

I have voted for Republicans on occasion, but mostly of the RINO variety (George Voinovich in ’04 for instance when the Ohio Dems ran an empty suit who had money.) I voted for John Kasich a few times for Congress when the Dems could not field a credible challenger, but I did not even consider voting for him over Ted Strickland for Governor.

If you guys can nominate a candidate with any appeal to me whatsoever I will be impressed. I kind of like Chris Christie’s confrontational style, I think he’d be a good choice. Other than him, I am not impressed with any of the purported Republican candidates as of yet. Some of them– I will not name names as to avoid offending unnecessarily– I consider to be abject idiots. Others are retreads who have done nothing to distinguish themselves since the last election. None of these candidates can beat Obama without a double dip recession or a major yet-unknown scandal of some sort.

We might find common ground on some economic issues– I think public employee unions should be banned, for instance, so I’ve followed some of the new Republican governors who are taking on the public unions with interest. I’m also for deep budget cuts, so I am following the budget battle in Washington closely, and I think Republican pressure on the Obama administration could be useful, although I did not like the Ryan plan– in particular, I’d much rather see the retirement age raised for Medicare than to scrap the program altogether. I did like much of the stuff in the Simpson Bowles proposal.

For Republicans to get my vote more consistently, they need concentrate on small business/ entrepreneurship issues. This is in my wheel house and we are a group that I do not think either party really understands. I believe that Americans need to develop more of an entrepreneur rather than an employee attitude. This used to be a Republican strength– understanding small business– but now the Republicans have become a hybrid conservative populist/big business party in my view.
ice9

Should let Erick do his own quibbling, for quibbling is required to explain why this post is foolish. It is not hard to imagine Obama doing this, because he said he would. He was attacked by Democrats and Republicans alike for the statement (which he reiterated dozens of times), and at the time only a few people noted the distinction that is now, apparently, grounds for dismissing the entire incident as some kind of happy coincidence of useful growth.

Obama was attacked repeatedly and savagely for being, either, completely inexperienced in foreign policy, or an eggheaded Adlai Stevenson type. Oddly, this criticism had little to do with policy declarations, even though he had made several, including the one described above. It was primarily based on how he pronounced the word ‘Pakistan.’ He was pronouncing it that way last night.

Obama was attacked for being ‘unqualified’ for the presidency–many of the more egregious and unhinged of the right still do. I wonder if he’s now considered more qualified? Would such growth in office qualify as establishing qualifications?

Finally, “say what you will about Obama” (a classic sentential adverb if I ever saw one, indeed, verily, youbetcha) he has a habit of keeping his campaign promises. Since a key criticism of Obama is his devious secret agenda-ing, it has been an important propaganda point to bury the simple fact of promises fulfilled. ACA is a promise fulfilled, for example, but it is relentlessly framed as some kind of weird extremist wild-hair socialistical plot (even though the finished product was laughably moderate, even Republican in nature.) You’d better sharpen up your rhetorical skills for this one, because only the most intrenched Freeper/Teapers are going to be able to de-fact it: He said he’d do it; he said how he’d do it; he did it. I’ll Concern Troll you one more: you don’t see it, because that’s your profession, but if you ask that fringy-right group of people to absorb another round of visibly false Obama-hatred dressed up as patriotic nuance, the collapse will be epic–so epic (and I can’t believe I’m really saying this) that it could do real damage to the nation.

This is a good thing. Get a grip and join the grownups.

ice9
powertothepeople

from the rear end of Obama, how about you try to post one post that does not ring of Obama campaign material.

And please, I can not actually believe you had the danglers to advise us to join the grownups after writing such a nonsense piece as what you wrote.

Can not say it was sad to see you go because you have not yet met the stick and you will not be missed.
http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

You are right about one thing: Obama has fulfilled campaign promises, like higher energy prices. Hit that one out of the park, if you ask me.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

Funny how a “net cut” in spending turned into a bajillion dollar “stimulus,” and that counts as keeping a promise?

Get lost.
Bill S

(Rules can be found here.)

Now, if you’re not really a Democrat who is intruding on our turf, feel free to petition the Contact link for reinstatement.

Oh, and you probably should learn what a “Concern Troll” is – because you’re not one. You’re a real, live, full-blown troll. Or, “were”.
Bill S

Heh.
Aaron Gardner
aesthete

and partisan eye-jabbing aside, this was clearly an effort that spanned administrations and that had more to do with work of sharp men and women in uniform than with who was in the Oval Office. I’ll give Obama credit for making the “tough call” that 99% of Americans would have called right, but no more — especially since he arrogated unto himself credit than he was not due.

RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Growing In Office

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