New York Times editorial: President Obama’s display of leadership in directing the killing of Osama bin Laden raises the prospect that American politics can move away from mindless debates over the president’s loyalties and fortitude…
The baseless critique of Mr. Obama as a frightened lamb among the world’s wolves was started in the 2008 campaign when Senators John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton derided his ability to manage world affairs….
The myth that he was a naïve hand-wringer persisted, despite his decisions to reduce troops in Iraq, strengthen them in Afghanistan and join a coalition to halt the Qaddafi regime’s bloodshed in Libya. His administration took too long to find its footing on Egypt’s transition and in Libya, but it was not because, as the popular conservative blog RedState said, he is a “trainee president.”
The blog accused Mr. Obama of basing his foreign policy on an “effete, pampered background” and a delight in consensus, and Republican presidential candidates quickly got the idea … just a few weeks ago, Mitt Romney accused him of being timid, tentative, and apologetic, all qualities stemming from “his fundamental disbelief in American exceptionalism.”
One of the subtexts to this argument is that Mr. Obama is not a true American, a thread soaked in the politics of fear and racial intolerance that runs through so much of the anti-Obama right. Donald Trump’s nativist claim that the president is not a citizen had its foreign-policy equivalent last year in Newt Gingrich’s repellent remark that Mr. Obama exhibits “Kenyan, anticolonial behavior.”
But just as releasing a birth certificate marginalized one falsehood, Mr. Obama’s risky and audacious decision to attack the Bin Laden compound in Pakistan has demolished the notion that he cannot make tough decisions or cares primarily about the nation’s image abroad….
Full editorial here
The Obama Diary 
They always seem to do a wonderful job insulting the President while they pretend to be praising him by “mocking” the people who have been hurling insults. All these insults they list in the article are baseless, founded on racism, and hugely fabricated and insulting. I, for one, never believed any of this crap, and this article kind of implies that the President has “proved” himself not to be these things, when all that has happened here is that the liars have been proven to be just that – liars. Evil little liars. If the article focused more on the liars and what evil they have wrought, instead of just listing the insults that were never true, I would have felt better about this “praise”.
Yes, they do mockingly insult, Theo!
Damning him with faint praise, is the order of the day!!
After that brazenly crude hollering of ‘you lie’ at the State of the Union ..it is for certain that Democrats should repeatedly assert to the right ..you are not just liars, and damn liars but PROVEN liars!!
over and over and over in every single post!
Right there with you Theo.. this crap gets old.
I totally agree with you, Theo. While I welcome that more Americans appreciate our outstanding President, the article only deals with obvious lies – lies that should have been refuted a long time ago. It does not address the President’s strength of character, his total focus on doing things the right way even at the expense of popular acclaim. I have no use for polls in general – and don’t believe they accurately reflect the opinions of the American people – I’d rather see people educate themselves about the issues, judge decisions on their merit and take a long view of where real leadership can take us.
I’m going to disagree here. The article is not insulting the president. They talk about BASELESS accusations, about a MYTH of President Obama’s weakness. I don’t see any faint praise here.
For once, I see an article implying that President Obama NEVER was a weak leader and that this was totally FABRICATED.
I’m so happy that now the myth of his “weakness” has been totally destroyed. And as we are learning more and more about the operation, it’s made clear to EVERYONE that not only he had enormous courage in his decision making, he also was a LEADER in the operation, pushing for action. He even was at the center of the success: in an article on BWD’s site, we learned this morning that President Obama was the one who had the wisdom to order some back-up for the helicopters involved in the raid, a back-up that proved to be essential to success.
I’ve prayed for months for JUSTICE. I’ve just asked for President Obama to be judged FAIRLY, to be seen for the TRUE LEADER that he is. I’m SO SO SO happy that he is vindicated now. I’m sure the attitudes of the journalists will change. I always sensed they didn’t even respect him completely as a MAN. Now they do. They will probably continue to search for controversy, they’ll still be annoyed that President Obama calls them out over their lack of seriousness, but they’ll treat him as a real President now.
LP2008, I truly appreciate your enthusiastic belief that ‘they’ll treat him as a real President now’, and it is my HOPE that you are right. I reread the full article after reading your comments and I have my doubts. On the issue of the tone of the article I confess that I feel the way Theo and some others do. It may seem like the writer is praising our President, but it is indeed, IMO, faint praise. He(She)lists a fair number of false arguments made by the President’s critics but never really effectively combats any of them. When s/he offeres a factual defence, the follow up sentence seems somewhat weak. For example,
‘The myth that he was a naïve hand-wringer persisted, despite his decisions to reduce troops in Iraq, strengthen them in Afghanistan and join a coalition to halt the Qaddafi regime’s bloodshed in Libya. His administration took too long to find its footing on Egypt’s transition and in Libya, but it was not because, as the popular conservative blog RedState said, he is a “trainee president.” ‘
[I wanted to underline the last sentence but didn’t know how.]
…
‘But just as releasing a birth certificate marginalized one falsehood, Mr. Obama’s risky and audacious decision to attack the Bin Laden compound in Pakistan has demolished the notion that he cannot make tough decisions or cares primarily about the nation’s image abroad.’
It almost seems here that s/he is only giving the President clearance for one or two things – leaving the door open, maybe?
Like you and the rest of the family here, I want the President to be judged fairly. However, I seriously doubt that the media as a whole will contribute much to this accomplishment. I now think that the President’s actions, manner, his leadership and its results will be what makes the difference. As these become more widely known – in spite of the ‘mainstream media’- the more sane amongst the electorate will have no choice but to support the only sane leader among the bunch.
My sentiments precisely!
thanks for taking the time to do the written analysis/rebuttal.
Truthfully, after reading this article I really didn’t feel a sense of satisfaction that the writer was unequivocally praising the President, and I can see now from reading your comment, Theo, that you had a similar unsettling feeling.
Damn Straight!!! That “Obama is weak” bull crap should stop coming from the right as well as the left.
The president needs to smack the far left into the next world. They are a drag no doubt.
OUR PRESIDENT HAS NEVER BEEN WEAK OR DITHERING OR WHATEVER ELSE THE NAYSAYERS WISH TO BASH IN THE DICTIONARY. FRANKLY…THESE ARE COWARDLY ACTIONS FROM LARGE MOUTHS WITH NO SOUL….’PLAYPEN SQUATTERS’ WOULD BE A GREAT SUMMATION FOR THE LEVEL OF THEIR MATURITY.
Wow, I am a lovin that editorial. Fantastic. I am going to have to spread this around. Thanks Chipstick!
This man, the President is no joke. I knew that when he ordered the pirate holding the American’s hostage shot without much fanfare. And he has some pretty good shooters around him too. I don’t think cowardly should be used as an adjective for President Obama, I know cowards and he is not one!
Yeah, but, but, but, he doesn’t rattle his saber enough, make empty boasts, or use fear as a tactic to win elections or influence poll results, so he’s “weak!” /s/
‘make empty boasts’
Will they continue to use this one, I wonder? Or will they notice that it’s obsolete? 😆
No he doesn’t.
He leads by example..as WJC said in his 2008 DNC speech…America leads by the power of her example NOT by the example of her power.
POTUS exemplifies that to the hilt!
let them insult because that’s all they are qualified to do
It seems to me, that there are some folks will never ever give our Beloved President TOTAL credit, for any GOOD that he does, and he has done Plenty GOOD In his Presidency. They just can’t seem to move beyond Race or, Skin Color, or ENVY, or WHATEVER. This Is LUDICROUS! So then, In their MINDS, “Such as It Is”, as long as his skin Is Black, or Is doing Good things, which causes them to be Envious, hateful or whatever their reasons, well, there will be no *FAIRNESS*. When People decide In their Minds, that they don’t like you for whatever reason, there’s nothing one can do to change that. This Is upsetting, and also Is Offensive, but then, Envious Folks, don’t care about Offending Others. The LITTLE PARTLY PRAISE, that they manage to Muster for President Obama, Is Truly INSULTING, IMO
Good morning Chipsticks and TOD family. It is finally a beautiful sunny day here. Yesterday I spent the day watching the polls for our school elections. For the first time we had mail out ballots and we were just a drop off place. Usually we have only 11% for a school election and yesterday we had over 30% and all the bonds passed. We are very glad.
I loved reading back thru all the posts yesterday and comments. It is so great to finally see our great President get the praise that is due him. He does everything for all of us in this country, not just us who support him but even the ones who hate him.
Have a great day everyone!
Good morning TOD family. Hey MT, that’s great news that your school bonds passed – CONGRATULATIONS! I want to say that however the press has to twist their faces to give POTUS praise, I’ll take it. We must understand them for what they are, little people who are trying to save face. Cut them some slack y’all – they are what they are. Save your energy on passing good word and thoughts to the re-election – OBAMA2012! Keep your eyes on the prize…OBAMA2012
‘… however the press has to twist their faces to give POTUS praise, I’ll take it’ …
‘Cut them some slack y’all – they are what they are’
Good points, GGail. I’ll try. 😉
Good Morning:-)
I guess based on this article from AP News…It seems that the killing of Osama…has Al Queda running scared…because they know that all the computers confiscated..hard drives the US must plenty of info on these guys….
HAHA It’s like a domino effect…They can no longer hide….They know that President Obama doesn’t waste anytime playing around….As he said “We will hunt you down and kill you” I love it Al Queda is on the run or turning themselves in…This is just as a BFD as it was catching OBL.
THERE ARE NO WORDS TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR THIS PRESIDENT….
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia says an al-Qaida member on the kingdom’s most wanted list called from abroad and turned himself in.
Interior Ministry’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said in a statement Wednesday that Khaled Hathal Abdullah al-Atifi al-Qahtani contacted the security authorities from an undisclosed country and expressed his wish to come home.
Al-Turki did not say when al-Qahtani was brought back to the kingdom, but many from the group fled to Yemen after a crackdown.
Al-Qahtani was reunited with his family and his surrender will be taken into consideration while looking into his case, Al-Turki said.
Al-Qahtani is apparently the first al-Qaida operative to surrender after its leader Osama bin Laden was killed on Monday.
Whoa Kasai that is awesome info- worth passing around- do you have a link for us please?
Let’s make sure that every american understands that all the data was recovered THANKS TO the courage of President Obama. Had he ordered a bombing, all the data would have been lost.
This is not only about getting Bin Laden. This is so much more. And can you just imagine how the intelligence community will RESPECT President Obama for this ??!!!
Wow, wow, it keeps getting better and better.
Wow.
Can you post a link to this!
This is just awesome ..dominos collapse of Al-Q?!
Can we say historic success of epic proportions? The greatest of PBO just keeps growing by leaps and bounds.
He will overshadow ALL the preceeding 43 POTUS’s if this is the outcome.
Wow
THERE YOU GO…IT’S FROM AP…JUST RELEASED
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110504/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_saudi_al_qaida
You rock! Thanks for that, will pass it forward right now 🙂
Thanks Kasai…this is great news. I am passing it on to folks who care to know what’s really happening. I’M IN!
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Thank you 🙂
I know…it’s getting better everyday 🙂
Is THIS MAN AWESOME OR WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kasai – thanks for sharing that article! This shows that the operation has wide ranging positive effects. It reminds me of a post a couple of days ago. “statement from Kadaffi: Uh oh”.
President Obama brilliance is something that has POLITICIANS say “HUH””WHAT?? HE DID WHAT???? LOL
1. He managed to weaken his assets
2. He gained respect from the muslim world (Cairo Speech)
3. He never let on about his mussion to his allies
4. I am amazed the fact that He didn’t want to kill civilians, and not bomb the campound, therefore was possible to retrieve valuable information from PC recovered after taking out Osama.
We might not able to get rid of all Terrorist in this World….But I tell you, This President has Al Queda BLUE PRINTS and pretty much have them running scared…..and in doing so told the WORLD….AMERICA WILL NOT SURRENDER….and showed what the US is made of.
I LOVE YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA
Chipsticks, here is a video of Beyonce showing up to one of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” events in Harlem. Mrs. Obama was not there, but it’s still great to see her program going all over the country.
WOW! WOW! WOW! That must have been exciting for those kids. The First Lady did real good yesterday, to have her and Beyonce there together, all I can say is WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! I can imagine Michelle and Malia and Sasha praticing this together. I’m not sure about our President trying it.
This was so exciting and heartwarming to watch!!
I love how innovative our people are! They took jobs out the hood and we created hip hop/own mix tapes/rap to make a way out of no way.
They take produce out of our stores and we build gardens on the corner.
They took physical ed out of the schools and our children are obese from the fast food and no exercise…and what did
FLOTUS do..put fitness at the top of the list
AND
don’t need instruction…just move to the dance tune and you will have a workout!!
Absolute genius!!
Black folks rule!
…and still we rise….
I wish I could recall who that congresscritter was who said, during PBO’s trip to Brazil, “Why doesn’t he get some work done?”. Haha….I trust that bastard has a mouth full of feathers 😀
And lets add a bit of tar to it, as well.
As I’ve said before – a thinking man’s president. Just cause he doesn’t make rash decisions doesn’t mean he is weak!