August 11, 2011
The Osama Bin Laden Dead Cat Bounce
Since the death of Osama Bin Laden, I've seen bits and piece on the Internet that suggest that Progressives and Mr. Obama himself are perplexed and frustrated that sending Bin Laden straight to Hell resulted in only the briefest PR bounce for Mr. Obama. Of course, Mr. Obama can't understand why every American isn't continually singing his praises, saying on more than one occasion, and with substantial indignation, "you [meaning the American people] ought to be thanking me" for this or that.
What is interesting and more than a little disturbing is that I've yet to see anyone touch on the reason. It's not rocket science; it is common sense. Perhaps that's why Mr. Obama and his Progressive sycophants—and the Media (but I repeat myself!)—can't "get" it.
So as a public service, to whatever degree trying to convince Progressives of common sense and the truth is a service (it's probably like trying to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig), I explain why Mr. Obama's "accomplishment" accomplished only a dead cat bounce.
First and most importantly, rational Americans see the accomplishment not as Mr. Obama's, but as our military's, most specifically as the accomplishment of SEAL Team 6. They also appreciate all of the other military and intelligence assets who worked diligently for years to make the successful raid possible.
Those who are well informed know that Mr. Obama dithered for so long to authorize the strike while our warriors sat, ready to go, awaiting his order. His dithering set the strike back a full day, increasing the risk of discovery and the risk that Bin Laden could have been tipped off. While Mr. Obama is due some credit as CINC for this raid, most people see his authorization not as evidence of military or leadership brilliance, but as the very least any American President should do in the same circumstances, yet Mr. Obama dithered for a day! Imagine the PR fallout if his dithering caused the mission to fail.
It's not hard to figure out: If you're the CINC, you ruthlessly pursue America's self-identified, deadly enemies and you have no hesitation in taking them out. This is the default position, the baseline, the absolute minimum required of any American President, yet Mr. Obama and his followers expect a massive PR bounce because Mr. Obama did the minimum? Because he simply did his job, though only after considerable indecision? Indecision about getting Osama Bin Laden?
As I write, I'm shaking my head in amazement that I have to explain this. I doubt that those for whom I am trying to explain are capable of accepting this little bit of reality. What do you, gentle readers, think?
One must remember that Obama is first and foremost a politician. He (and his advisers) were weighing the outcome of:
A) A successful outcome of the mission with Bin Laden dead;
B) The nightmare of a Jimmy Carter-style busted mission where our troops are lost through a massive cluster foxtrot (equipment failure, an enemy trap, etc.);
C) Not taking action and having it come out at a later time (as in: the 2012 election cycle) that Obama had Bin Laden cold and failed to act.
Of these three scenarios, the fear of B or C probably caused paralysis in the politicians. I suspect only after it was pointed out that option A was his only viable choice that he gave the go-ahead. That this evolution required a full 24 hours is a strong indictment of Obama's failure as CIC and in the office of president in general.
Posted by: Just Sayin' at August 12, 2011 07:23 AMThe Left wants extra credit because he could have really screwed it up and didn't. They fail to mention, that seal team 6 (like the rest of the DoD) is operating without a budget for its second year. Passing a budget is one of those little things that our government doesn't bother with any more because democrats refuse to sign their names to any cuts, no matter how insignificant.
You can be sure, if Obama's ditherng had allowed Osama to get away, it would have been just one more near miss in ten years of near misses and no one would have connected it to Obama at all.
Posted by: Professor Hale at August 12, 2011 07:36 AMIf the strike had failed we never would have heard about it. That's just common sense. Why would they admit failure?
I'm looking forward to the movie.
I figure it'll be an instant cult classic as the Obama makes the "gutsy call" that was about as much of a no-brainer as could be that he made kind of wimpy by making sure they didn't capture OBL because he didn't have the nerve for that.
I'm just wondering if it'll be "Hot Shots! Part Douche", "Rocky Horror" or "Tank Girl" funny.
Posted by: Veeshir at August 12, 2011 11:05 AMThe image of Obama watching the operation in his golf shorts made it seem as if he thought he was watching "The Expendables" in the White House theatre. He looked unserious as much as that staged photo-op was intended to convey the exact opposite. Couple that with his wanting to "sleep on" the order, and he appeared as an indecisive, unserious, spoiled brat who was probably resenting the interruption to his playtime. Playtime is important to this President as evidenced by his 9-day vacation to Martha's Vineyard to rub elbows with a very small fraction of the American population. True, POTUS vacations are always working vacations, but Martha's Vineyard? The appearance is of a spoiled rich kid who finally hit it big and is living large while his people suffer. Bad form that, but par for the course for this President, if you'll pardon the pun.
Posted by: Col Bat Guano at August 12, 2011 11:07 AMHA! The movie on Obama taking out bin Laden? It'll be right up there with "Threat Level: Midnight"!
Posted by: Walt at August 12, 2011 11:33 AMMy favorite is American civilian Leftys who gloat about it. They're like "My side (beatnic hippys) got him, and your side (the actual military) didn't. I've encountered that a half dozen times now. The weird thing is that they actually believe it. The confusion on their faces when you explain reality is fun though.
Posted by: brando at August 12, 2011 12:24 PMObama made a herioc decision. At least that is what we are told. Can someone tell me what option he had and what would have happened to Obama if the mission had gone wrong? I mean the Seals would have lost life and limb, Obama would have lost a few points on his weekly approval poll. Was that the herioc decision? What about the ROE's, have they contributed to the loss of more soldiers and did they have a factor in the recent Seal deaths.
Personally, I think the killing of old Bin was the stupidist of decisions. He could have been mined for information. He could have been waterboarded without public knowledge. If you wanted to assure his death, just bump into him with a drop of thallium. Does it everytime. Then insist the Paks take care of him. In shout, stupid to go in and get him like some cowboy.
Posted by: david7134 at August 13, 2011 11:52 AM
