Now that OBL was killed on Obama's watch, do you think this will be a shoo-in for his reelection"?

I’m giving Bush all the credit. If he hadn’t let Osama run around for seven years Obama wouldn’t have been able to clean up the mess.

You got to give Obama and his administration some credit. Most of the credit goes to the American military. Obama wasn’t the deciding factor in this. The Deciding factor was the military gathering intelligence and the Navy SEAL team who went in and killed the bastards. As for helping with re-electing, I don’t know.

I really think that the credit should go to the military and the CIA, although some credit is due to both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Oh yeah, I think the election is still going to hinge more on domestic issues than UBL’s demise….but it will give President Obama a much needed boost in public opinion for a while.

I see a society profoundly polarized and divided. All the credit here, none there. All the credit there, none here. More polemics thrown around. How embarrassing. People not bothering to spell the name of the US President correctly.

America can do better than this.

Justice has been served. A mass-murderer is no longer with us.

I think the reelection will depend on numerous factors and dealing with terrorism is just one of those factors.

You wanted Obama to helicopter in an shoot bin Laden himself?
The Military moved at Obama’s direction.
The CIA gathered the necessary data at Obama’s direction.
Obama waited 8 months to strike. He verified bin Laden’s relevence in current terrorism, verified the likelihood that ObL was there. He decided to move in without alerting Pakistan.
I definitly give kudos to the SEALS and to the CIA, but make no mistake, Obama was responsable. And he would have definitly taken the hit if this blew up in our faces.
Yes, Obama will get reelected on the strength of this. To paraphrase Biden: this is an f*n huge thing.

I don’t think anyone will be a shoo-in. I do think that this is a good thing for the Obama administration.

Couldn’t agree more @filmfann. Many people should be credited here. Excluding people from being credited is hurtful and disrespectful. I would include both the previous and current administration.

You have to ask yourself this question…....during the Bill Clinton administration, the president denied the military’s request to surgically removed Bin Laden. Why?

My curiosity is asking me, why did they dump Bin Ladens body in the ocean, without first letting the remaining survivors and family of 911, see his dead body for some kind of closure?

Why Obama and why now??

Shoo-in? This may temporarily boost his ratings, but in the long haul, I see a one term president.

There’s a lot of time between now and November 2012.

I agree that the SEALs and CIA deserve tons of props.

But Obama was the one who decided on this plan. Robert Gates, according to the NYT, was originally against it; others wanted to do aerial bombardment, or simply wait out for better intelligence. Obama was the one who insisted on sending special forces, both to minimize civilian casualties and to actually ensure that “we got him.” Obama also decided not to tell the Pakistanis, which looks like a pretty wise decision.

Obama also placed top priority on finding and killing bin Laden, something his predecessor did not do.

So while the SEALs and CIA deserve all the praise for the tactics of this mission, Obama deserves a lot of praise for the strategy.

It will help Obama, but if the economy does not significantly improve between now and Nov. 2012 he will be a one term president.

It won’t help him in any noticable way. “It’s the economy, stupid,” as Bill Clinton supposedly said. If things get better, Obama should get reelected. If not, someone who will drive the country further into the doldrums will get elected.

Obama himself has reflected on this and said that it will minimally affect his re-election because the big issues will be about energy and economy.

Politicians don’t create millions of jobs, private enterprises do. And when private enterprises sacrifice long-term investments for short-term earnings being so obsessed with quarterly results failing to create innovative products of the future such as fuel-efficient cars, these jobs are being created in other countries. Producing financial bubbles on Wall Street doesn’t create jobs that last.

There is an influence of politics on the economy, but we tend to overestimate it.

People’s memories are short and many issues will arise before the election. This is a moment of glory for Obama but not – and shouldn’t be – a trump card.

OBAMA, that being how you spell his name, will not have an easy time of reelection. Mostly because of all the obstructionist people out there working to keep him from getting anything done who will then point a finger and say “look, he didn’t get anything done!”

Without the diplomatic work of Obama and his team, we likely would not have even been in Pakistan in the first place to get this done. The heavy-handed actions of the previous administration had many countries worried that the US was going to step in and try to invade their countries where they had no business being, much like we did with Iraq. Its the steps forward, from the flat run backwards, that Obama and his team of diplomats have taken for international diplomacy let us be in a position where we could do something about knowing for sure that this was where Bin Laden was. While the intelligence agencies and the military did a lot of the work, the work of the diplomats should not be undervalued. Obama’s role in working with the intelligence agencies and the military shouldn’t be undervalued either.

Obama might not have done it himself, but he had plenty to do with it. Trying to deny his role in the matter just because you don’t like him is childish.

@janbb Trump card. Freudian slip? :-)

No.

@Dr_Dredd Perhaps a Freudian slipper.

@janbb Or a Freudian hairpiece…

@Dr_Dredd Is that what that raccoon is?

Remember the Three AM phone call advertisement?

And it is kind sad Obama had to deal with all of Trump’s bullshit when all this was being planned. Now I know why he looked so pissed.

My second or third thought after hearing the news was that this would definitely be helpful in getting Obama reelected. People’s memories may be short and the economy may be a bigger issue, but this is going to play a huge role in his reelection campaign. It will be all over the place. They will make us remember.

Let’s break it down:

The Vision: World Peace
One Mission (of this vision): To end terrorism.
One Goal (of this mission): To eradicate the Al-Queda regime.
The Strategy (of this goal): Start by taking Osama Bin Laden, dead or alive.
The Tasks (to carry out this strategy): Find out where he is, figure out how to get into the complex without being caught, and take the man out, all without the plan getting leaked, planning what to do should something go wrong, who to communicate with once the strategy is completed, etc.

In this instance, and in my opinion, he has displayed an impressive amount of leadership in setting a strategy, keeping the tasks under wraps in order to carry it out effectively, and then communicate what needs to be told to the appropriate parties at the appropriate times. It is truly admirable.

I wish I could say the same about how national healthcare was introduced, but I can only blame myself for not staying on top of it. Honestly though, did anyone try to read its document? It made my head spin. If he continues along this venue, President Obama will have my vote in the next election should he decide to run again and he doesn’t make a major faux pas in the meantime.

No. Obama didn’t kill him, did he? This was an extra-presidential operation. And I’d’ve had the same opinion had this had happened on Bush’s watch.

A President has to do far more then just that, theres other pressing issues that deserve equal attention, Bin Laden is old business thats been resolved, I guess it depends on who Osama is running against during reelection.

@aprilsimnel He was far more involved than that. He put the intelligence leaders in place that pieced together the info to first bring to him, he then decided this info was enough to further investigate… then later he was the one who decided we would go in with a task force and take him dead or alive (rather than bomb it or investigate further)..... Now obviously he wasn’t the guy pulling the trigger. But the guy pulling the trigger was under orders that were basically directly from the president…. in fact I would be somewhat surprised if these guys didn’t talk to the president pre-mission.

All that said, this will help Obama sure. But a lot can happen in 18 months, and if the economy doesn’t improve he’ll have a tough time. Though he is getting a lot of help by the Republican field looking like a circus.

@thecaretaker Lovely “typo.”

@klutzaroo did I do that? LOL, who can keep track, its one letter off as strange as that is.

@tedd – I had no idea. I thought he just OKed stuff. Thanks for that.