WASHINGTON - Where is the "Mission Accomplished" banner?
There was no aircraft carrier in Kabul and President Barack Obama wasn't wearing a jumpsuit when he landed there in secret. But his drop-in on the one year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden was the most dramatically political photo-op by a president in a commander-in-chief role since President George W. Bush landed in a jet on the S.S. Abraham Lincoln in May 2003.
Obama's visit, to sign a deal with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, was coupled on the political calendar Tuesday with excerpts from a forthcoming NBC News special in which the president and his top aides recounted the dramatic narrative of the bin Laden takedown. The network also got unprecedented access to the Situation Room from which the president presided over the operation.
The two events, in Kabul and on TV, cap a nearly weeklong build-up during which the Obama White House and campaign team engineered a drumbeat of stories, ads and events in what amounted to Osama Week -- a time to celebrate the president's achievement and, where possible, to take knee-capping swipes at presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Romney, in a statement Tuesday night, said he supported Obama's trip -- further evidence that Obama has the political upper hand as commander-in-chief on defense and foreign policy.
It is easy to see why Team Obama went for the whole enchilada. He had campaigned in 2008 on focusing on Osama and the place where he turned out to be hiding, Pakistan. The president made the right call when the time came. Romney had expressed doubts about the wisdom of focusing on hunting for bin Laden, and on focusing on places such as Pakistan.
More to the point, politically, two of Obama's leading strengths are foreign policy in general and his performance as commander-in-chief, according to the polls.
A quick perusal is enough to make the point. In the most recent national CBS/New York Times poll, Obama has a positive rating of 46-36 for his handling of "foreign policy," his highest rating on any major issue or duty. A CNN recent poll gives the president a 52-36 lead over Romney on the question of who would be a better commander-in-chief. The CBS poll gives Obama a 30-13 lead over Romney on the question of which candidate voters have "very" strong confidence in to be commander-in-chief.
Obama's lead on these topics reverse, at least for now, a generation's worth of Democratic Party political weakness on defense and foreign policy -- a crushing burden on the Democrats ever since George McGovern ran on an anti-war platform in 1972 and lost 49 states to Richard Nixon.
So Team Obama is out to firm up an area of unaccustomed strength, as well as to carve a week out of Romney's early effort to attack the president on various economic weak spots, particularly unemployment and housing.
They are also out to show that they can out-Rove Karl Rove, who ran a 2004 Bush re-election campaign that was dedicated to depicting the Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry, as a Baby Boom reincarnation of McGovern.
But just because you CAN take things over the top -- and today's made-for-tv events are just that -- it doesn't mean that you should. Barack Obama promised to be a new and different kind of politician. If any further proof was needed that he isn't, this week -- with Bill Clinton's testimonial to his courage under fire, and with unsubtle attacks on Romney's manhood, not to mention common sense -- should finally be enough.
In another sense, Obama IS a a new and different kind of politician. He's a Democrat executing the GOP media playbook better than Bush did.
One other thing: the "mission" the Bush sign said was accomplished, wasn't. It took eight more years, and the durability of what was accomplished remains in doubt.
We may have signed a new deal with Karzai, and the American troops are on their way out, though perhaps 20,000 will stay for a decade or more.
What exactly have we accomplished there? That's a deeper question, but it'll have to wait until after Osama Week.
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NOTHING has been accomplished by Obama, except one thing: for the time being, he has thankfully made it respectable in America for the United States to wage war more or less as where when and against whomever it so pleases. For which I DO thank him, it was overdue.
1. The agreement Obama signed with Karzai essentially said that they would get together to look into signing an agreement. This is not news. This was a photo op in the guise of signing an agreement.
2. He gave the order to pull the trigger. This is more than Clinton did (twice) and against his own VP's advice. I guess winning the election is more important than the good will of the Arab fundamentalists (contrary to Obama's 2008 campaign rhetoric). No "Hope and Change" here.
3. I give him props for "pulling the trigger" his ludicrous accusation that Romney wouldn't have (in spite of 2007 Republican debate responses to the contrary) is proof that this paragon of virtue is not above sleazy politics to remain in power.
4. I think that the recent budget proposal and agreement that if this president and congress couldnt find trillions in savings would mean that the money would almost EXCLUSIVELY come from the defense budget instead of grossly bloated entitlement programs is evidence that Democrats are STILL weak on defense and still hold the military in disdain and the root of American Imperialism.
About the only thing in this article that smacks of truth is the 5th paragraph from the bottom. Obama is nothing new in politics and despite the ridiculous claim that the party, which has always pretty much had the media in their back pocket, is now using GOP tactics with the media this is absolutely nothing new.
So what is a military conservative? A draft dodger like Ted Nugent? Or a chickenhawk like Newt Gingrich?
And not just the Bush media playbook, but also the Bush economic playbook. Not to mention the Bush endless war playbook (which is happening under the cover of being a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate). Not to mention the Bush playbook on energy policy (drill baby drill). Not to mention the Bush playbook on incremental reduction of civil liberties (indefinite detention without due process is now legal).
What is so different about Obama is that as an actor in this movie, unlike GW who was a rank amateur, Obama is an Oscar nominee. He has even fooled lifelong liberals and progressives into believing he is a lesser of two evils.
He sings a line from an Al Green song, and the liberal Democratic ladies swoon. Obama slow jams with Jimmy Fallon and the angriest Democratic progressives forget that Obama agreed to extend the tax cut for the rich, or that he is willing to cut more from Social Security and Medicare than John Boehner, or that he just signed a "law" that will keep us in Afghanistan for another decade!
Obama is the wolf in sheep's clothing.
compared to the ineffectual posturing of the last administration it's quite refreshing.
and we also know what mr. gwb didn't do in the eight years he had in office.
since when has the gop become so dainty?
listening to some of the victorian vapors coming from people about this new-found campaign sensitivity makes me wonder... is this the same party that compared max cleland (a triple amputee veteran) to osama bin laden?
The one problem that Democrats have is that they do not celebrate their accomplishments. Democrats have been beaten over the head for years by republicans over foriegn policy. Now when they accomplish a major goal in eliminating a world threat like OBL they should be lauding farther faster and more.
The republicans would have had a ticker tape parade if they were in control and this happened (though I doubt it would have considering they didn't want OBL dead, but alive and scaring people).
Now when Obama wants to start cutting back on the military it will be more difficult for the republicans to say that Obama is making the world less safe. The republicans had eight years to get OBL and even with a massive head start Obaam managed to get him in little over two years.
Boener said Americans don't like losers. He is right. Obama won republicans lost, lets do the dance and move on.
all this is a severe case of sour grapes. typically gop - if they can't run it, control it or buy it, they want to destroy it.
The last administration used the fear factor by raising the alert level to garner control of people's fears in an erroneous way to capture their vote and attention. This President has more class and has every right to speak of this deed, since it was ultimately his decision to take out this man. This President is aware of how Republican's use fear to control the masses, but he does it in the context reflected on those who actually took part in the raid and other's aside from himself.