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In the last few weeks, as gasoline prices have continued to climb in the United States, President Obama has seen his poll numbers decline, suggesting a potential vulnerability in 2012.
But the news that Osama bin Laden has been killed -- on Obama's watch -- is most definitely a political game-changer and appears destined to impact the contours of the 2012 presidential race, as well as the emerging Republican field. Of course, the size of the impact is yet unknown and will be played out in the months ahead, especially with U.S. unemployment near 9%. The 2012 general election, after all, is more than 550 days away.
As NBC's Chuck Todd also mentioned, it could have an impact on the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan-Pakistan. Does it make the U.S. re-evaluate the mission there? Does it affect the troop draw-down that's scheduled to begin this summer?
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Congratulations to my fellow Americans!!! It is a great day. Congratulations Mr. Obama!!!
No more negative comparisons to President Carter now eh?
Thank you, Mr. President. Not only for bringing justice to a mass murderer but also for your decisive action in other matters of national importance that have helped lead us forward as a nation. I, for one, support you.
Absolutely. President Obama's decisive action has removed not Muslim Fundamentalists but the icon of terrorism. It proves that the US can do. This week has been evidence of the President's action and reaction in regards to attacks on his personal life as well as actions on an National and International stages. There are many serious challanges ahead. I'm glad we have this President on watch and nothing else said can remove this fact.
Unanswered for the moment is which religious zealots in the government of Pakistan decied that Osama's whereabouts were not to be revealed to their strategic Western ally and generous benefactor.
There you go, Obama does kick ass haha. Good work dude. You got to love this guy. He got the job done.
Yea, he got the job done with the help of former President Bush laying all the ground work for him and the brave men and women with "boots on the ground".
Thank you Mr. Bush for your help. Thank you Navy Seals and most of all, thank you Mr. President for having the courage to authorize this mission. Good job all around.
and guess what they found in Bin Landen's pocket? Obama's birth certificate!
I really want to see how the extreme conservative media will spin this as something really bad for US.
They have been busily creating conspiracy theories rather than give President Obama a whit of credit for this incredible accomplishment. Sour grapes with a side of Koch. Here are a few examples:
1. No body, not really OBL
2. Dumped body at sea, not really OBL
3. Bush set up the mission ten years ago.
4. Killed last week, announcement held off to coincide with Celebrity Apprentice.
5. Photos show dead guy with black hair; OBL should have had white hair--must not be OBL.
6. President Obama should not get the credit because he is against guns and did not pull the trigger.
There is a migration from the old Birther coalition to the new Deather coalition. You just can't keep a good conspiracist down.
It's simple, Under Bush he was alive. Under Obama he's dead. Obama gets credit. Of course having great intelligence as to the location and execution of the mission was the game changer.
If Bush knew where he was, he would have ordered his death or capture. But he didn't.
Obama lead a successful operation. As commander in chief he performed the job very well and the proof is in the body bag. End of argument.
This is not a political game changer, because it will only take one misstep on the war against terror and the killing of Osama Bin Laden will mean nothing. Yes, the killing of Bin Laden is big, it changes nothing as far as Al Qaida is concern or how Arabs see America. The protest in Eygpt, Lybia, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain is dangerous for the US. The US has not idea who or what forces are behind the uprising, I do not believe that it democracy at work. Eygpt has already said it want the peace accord with Isreal appealed. I believe American voters are more sophisticated than to let the killing of Bin Laden sway them in the 2012 election. Unemployment, foreclosure, gas prices, inflation, national deficit, illegal immigration, foreign policy, bailouts, social security, medicare, health care reform, Iraq and Afghanistan are the issues of the day and I just don't see them changing anytime soon.
Wrong. The President of the United States reported that under his watch, the perpetrator of the 9/11 attack has been killed. This is the same news as the death of Adolph Hitler. FDR and Harry Truman and the Democratic party carried the United States toward victory in WW II. It is wrong to denounce the very tiring "I hate Obama, I hate Obama " rhetoric platform. I hate Mr. Ryan's coupon program. I hate Mr. Walker/Koch's attitude, action and disregard for the rights of Americans. Too bad guys, the removal of Bin Laden finishes off what Mr. Bush could not. All credit to President Obama. Job well done.
To all of you teapublicans and Obama naysayers since you say Obama deserves no credit for the killing of Osama Bin Laden, using your logic we should not have been after him at all because he personally didn't fly any planes into any buildings, shoot anyone or plant any bombs. It's depressing that once people pick a team (democrat, republican etc) they refuse to be influenced by fact, truth or logic. All they see is an enemy.
If you follow American politics (apparently MSNBC doesn't) nothing except the last 6 months leading up to November 2012 will matter. If the American public didn't care about the 51 field terrorists killed or arrested (the deck of cards folks) I doubt that the death of an old severely ill figurehead will be much of a game changer.
How come it only took a BLACK, Marxist, Socialist, Muslim, illegal POTUS & CinC who wants to tear America apart & stick it to "Whitey" 850 DAYS to do what a Chicken Hawk from Texas could not do with the help of his Daddy & 100 of his best friends couldn't do in 8 years....?
The sure won't have ANY effect on the elections either, the Right has already taken the high ground of claiming that it is of no value....
Ya sure! that's what all those in DC & at Ground Zero are thinking....
the rest of the country will certainly buy the disingenuous claim as well....
too bad for ol Barry O. he'll never get elected on junk news like Fox calls this item!
lol hes prob been dead for a while and Obama use it to get his approval rate back up... Obama STILL TAKING THIS NATION INTO A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY
It changes nothing. Elections are not tomorrow. Obama's approval ratings will go up of course, but the true issues remain and will eventually regain daily headlines. Congratulations to our military, and our President. God Bless America!
Thank you bshrader for proving my point. You are likely one of those who were calling this the Obama recession even before he took office after praising Bush for invading the wrong country.
yeah you are an @!$%# teabagger I LOVE IT
Way I hear it, Glenn Beck is spinning this one that Obama is a Communist because the killing of Osama Bin Laden took place on May Day, the old Soviet holiday...
yeah you are an @!$%# teabagger I LOVE IT
Obama/Biden 2012
are u a bigger @!$%# than i think u are?
No s--t, He is definately getting re-elacted, and apparently, he is the best guy for the job, victory from hard work. Quit complaining , no more stealing from the working class, no credit thievery, no blame game. I knew I voted for the right guy
Good god people, shut up and celebrate the defeat of one of the most
vile enemies to have ever crossed our great nation. Stop nitpicking
over party ideals and personal feelings about our elected leaders and
acknowledge that today like any other is a great day to be an
American. We live in the greatest nation to grace the face of this
earth and it's high time we stopped fighting each other for 10 minutes
and held hands collectively and sang that great song penned in the
harbor during a bleak night in the war of 1812.
America will not bow to terrorists, regardless of what party our
president is from and we will never accept neither defeat nor will we
stand idle as violent men try to subjugate the minds and freedom of
the free people of this world.
I stand with you all proudly tonight as I did through both of my tours
in Iraq and my tour I'm Afghanistan and I congratulate both President
Bush and President Obama for their fortitude in doing what is needed
to keep our nation safe; I congratulate the US intelligence community
for their dedicated work that allowed this to finally happen. I
congratulate my fellow servicemen for their conviction and dedication
to their duty and I envy the soldier that made that fateful shot.
God bless America, we have once again showed the world that we will
not hide with our heads buried in the sand. If you hit us, you will
never be safe. We will come, we will persevere, we will be vigilant
and we will find you.
If there is an uptick in terror attacks in response to this then we
will respond with strength. We should never be idle, fearing the
reprisals of madmen worldwide. We are the mightiest nation with the
strongest people in the world and we must show our collective strength
in defense of our land, our lives and our freedom.
To borrow an important and fitting line from our own civil rights
movement: we will overcome. Not just terrorism, not just economic
uncertainty, not just natural disasters, but anything that can be
thrown at us, we will overcome.
Set your divisions aside and rejoice once more in the great land that
I for one would consider it a small price to lay my life down for. God
bless America and god bless you all.
Wow Obama has done the one, two three punch, his birth certificate, calling Trump out twice, (the one at the Corespondents dinner was priceless) and now getting Osama...... take that Trump and all you other people who say he's not a great leader....He got em, and the next thing he'll get is a re-election cause the troops are coming home.
Eight years, TO THE DAY, after "The Mistake" claimed Mission Accomplished on an aircraft carrier, President Obama accomplished what the "Idiot" couldn't. Bush couldn't find WMDs. Obama found bin Laden. Enough said. End of story. Go cry in your teabags Republicans.
Peter you libitard. Obama accomplish nothing. The military you all hate so much did. Also none of this would have been neccessary and the tower would still stand if Clinton did his job and killed him when he had the opportunity
Peter I am sure you will be teabagged tonight but several men at the gay bar
drdarby you circus-clown-freak-republican-if you would read the news you would see that this was a mission ordered by our very effective President elect. Like it or not, he has been very effective in amping up drone attacks along the pakistan border and this was a fruit of his focus on that region. You've got nothing but vile and vitriol. Our president is doing great things for this country. hate him all you want but you cant change the facts!
People, we don't give credit to Obama for ordering the killing of Bin Laden, because he didnt do it himself, yet we blame him for everything else. Darn if you do and darn if you don't.
Great post!
The President didnt kill anybody. If we want to congratulate somebody, lets congratulate the one who physically shot bin Laden. Then, bring him back to the states and elect him as President.
How stupid can you be. The soldiers that carried out that raid will never be able to come forward, unless they want to put their family life in danger, and they will not beable to collect the 25 million reward.
We got one. Maybe the one with the most brains, and the most money, but ONLY ONE. When will we learn that we can't protect the world? We have a hard enough time protecting ourselves. How about we close all american bases worldwide, and if a country wants us to stay, THEY pay for the base and troops. Foreign aid? How about Local Aid. Been to New Orleans lately? If there is a huge tragedy, like the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami, certainly we should help. But we can help our own economy in the process. If the Japanese need food, instead of the US Govt sending a check, how about we buy it retail, and send it commercial. The Japanese get the help, the american farmers, food processors, and retail stores all get help, the transportation companies all get help, and we can cut out the agencies, and studies, and all the middlemen who take up to 80 percent of what our generous government tries to send. If we send american products, generators for example, and they don't want american products, I'm pretty sure that the folks in Louisiana that still don't have power can use them. Oh, and by the way, when we close all the foreign bases, and save all those billions, we need somewhere to house all the units that will be coming home. So maybe we don't close domestic military bases, and local economies get the boost there? All the engineering battalions can get to work rebuilding Hurricane, flood, and tornado ravaged towns and cities. Perhaps we should base a lot of them spread across the northern and southern borders for a while. It's still easy to sneak into the U.S., and I think retaliation is a real concern. Just for the radical Islamists, (that perverted the Koran) to save face. While we're at it, we can patrol for illegal aliens sneaking in with the terrorists. I know that the current Iraq mission wasn't the right one for the military. It should have been police. Patrolling the borders isn't really the right mission for the military either, unless we make it a military mission. Lets see, different estimates say that 10 to 20 million illegals are currently in the United States. How many soldiers did we send to Normandy on June 6, 1944? Certainly less than 10 million, a lot less! Wasn't that called the D-Day Invasion? I thought so. So with 10 to 20 million illegals, I guess thats an Invasion! Now thats a job for the military! We create a quarter mile "Dead Zone" at the border, and post and publicize that any living thing that crosses into the dead zone is invading our country, and therefore in a free fire zone, and therefore a live target. Then we shoot the invaders, not arrest, not give them a free ticket home. Shoot to kill. Thats a job for the military, fighting off an invasion, isn't it? The bonus here is we also cut down on drug trafficking.
Just a thought, or two......Hey, I just cut the deficit, bolstered the economy, saved military lives, improved our world image, fed the hungry, and housed the homeless. Maybe I should run for office!! Barack, if you steal these Ideas, I want at least an Ambassadorship.