The Macho Democrat

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-16/obama-looks-unbeatable-with-national-security-victory/?cid=bs:archive12#

The Macho Democrat

by Michael Tomasky
Newsweek/Daily Beast Special Correspondent Michael Tomasky is also editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.

Obama looks unbeatable now—but the GOP sees weak spots. In this week’s Newsweek, Michael Tomasky on the political advantage gained by the president’s national security “scalp”.




snip//

But now, the killing of Osama bin Laden is changing this equation dramatically. Alleged Muslim Barack Obama did in two and a half years what Bush couldn’t do in seven and a half. It wasn’t just the result. The nature of the operation is still breathtaking, weeks later, and the risk Obama took, which he conveyed with masterful cool in his 60 Minutes interview, is mind-blowing (imagine if bin Laden hadn’t been there!). You can call the president who oversaw the operation many things, but weak isn’t one of them.

Watching some Republicans’ first stabs at responding to the event was both sad and hilarious. Some were gracious (even Dick Cheney), but the propaganda machine and its envoys cranked out the usual bluster. They tried the this-proves-that-torture-works argument, pinned to a slender reed involving a man named Abu Faraj al-Libi, but the known facts don’t support the contention that torture played a major role. Then Bush administration torture-policy architect John Yoo played against type by asserting that it was cowardly to kill bin Laden rather than taking him alive. Things finally reached self-parody when Andrew Card of the Bush White House (the one that declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq roughly 4,200 fatalities ago) snarked that Obama was pounding his chest too much.

Absurd. But Democrats need to avoid becoming cocky. Republicans will not give up their narrative of liberal weakness so easily. Over the coming weeks, the GOP is likely to strike back on three fronts.

snip//

Of course a terrorist attack on U.S. soil would change everything in an instant. But for now, Obama is perched on a pedestal with a prize—a scalp—no Republican can wrest from his hands. “For years and years,” an administration official told me, “Democrats have wondered about how you look tough on national security. Turns out the way you look tough is by being good at it.”

Tomasky is a NEWSWEEK/Daily Beast special correspondent.

[craigmatic]

1. All this aying Obama is unbeatable is beginning to make me nervous. Nobody is unbeatable.

I hope his team takes nothing for granted.

[OKNancy]

2. I think I keep thanking you..over and over

and I will keep doing it! I really like that you post well-balanced articles.

[Randy_P]

3. K&R

Righteous! (Did I spell that right?)

[damonm]

4. Thou didst spell it righteously...lol n/t

[al_liberal]

5. Nope, Obama and the Dems will "move on".

They will piss away yet another vehicle to hammer away at the dumbfucklicans. Remember, we only look forward not backward. This administration is the absolute worst at messaging. You can't say or do something one time and expect the American populace to remember it.

[chalky]

7. I'm usually a glass-half-empty kind of girl myself, but for some reason

I kept picturing the words of your post coming out of this guy's mouth...

[I owe]

6. K'd, R'd

[quaker bill]

8. He was always going to do this.

He said he would "act on intelligence" during the campaign. I know this kind of guy and was sure he would act at the first reasonable opportunity. It is his signature. He has no problem shooting the long shot, given he is pretty sure he will make it.

George W Bush would not have stood in front of a thousand troops and tossed up a three point shot in front of TV cameras, and more importantly still, would never have been cool and steady enough to make it.

This is a man you really do not want to be on the wrong side of. Donald Trump now has a better understanding of this as well.

[Avant Guardian]

9. They can beat him by cheating

States with republican governors will cheat massively. It's all about who counts the votes. The whole election will be about cheating, just watch.