President Obama is going to ground zero. The obvious question is why, since his presence there has absolutely no practical value as it relates to anything. The answer is equally obvious -- he is trying to milk every ounce of political benefit from the killing of Osama Bin Laden and will put on a show to do it.
So he is going to ground zero, then to Engine Co. 54, who lost 15 firefighters that day and then to meet with 911 families. Think about it. If he wanted to meet with 911 families ( and which 911 families anyway? There were 3000 people killed on 911. Obama is not going to be meeting with 6-10,000 people which would represent the approximate number of family members of those killed.)to share a moment with them he could have invited whoever he will meet with today to the White House and do it privately. Instead no doubt agreeing with his political advisors he is off to New York City to do a dog and pony show for his own benefit and to take as much credit as possible to trumpet Bin Laden's death.
Its to his own benefit because it's certainly not to anyone else's. As someone living in New York City I can tell you anyone in or around where Obama is going to be is cursing his arrival. Not because its Obama but because of what any presidential visit and the accompanying security issues does to New York City traffic.
Lower Manhattan which is the heart of the financial district still has narrow streets dating back to the Revolution. Traffic there is usually snarled on any average business day. It will come to a standstill and become a traffic nightmare with Obama's visit and I can promise you no one down there is happy about it. Especially since this isn't something like addressing the United Nations or doing something that is essential to carrying out his presidential duties. It is strictly a dog and pony show that is happening for his own political benefit.
The glory for killing Bin Laden belongs to the gallantry, heroism and ability of the Navy Seals who stormed the compound and killed him. The credit for killing Bin Laden belongs to the Seals and the hundreds of people in the military and the CIA who literally worked for years to bring about this day. For Obama to go and try and bask in the fruits of other people's labor and accomplishment is about as seamy and tasteless thing as I've seen from a president. Not only that, all of this -- Obama's presence, the congressional delegation that turned out, the pomp and cirumstance all over the killing of one man, in a perverse way inadvertantly honors Bin Laden by having such ceremony, such importance, the appearance of congressional dignataries nd the news media, all for the killing of one man. In its own way it elevates Bin Laden to a status he doesnt deserve.
Far from Bin Laden's death being justice it would have been a lot better to point out that 3000 Bin Ladens wouldnt be worth a single life of those who died on 911. It wouldnt be worth the life of one of the passengers who stormed the cockpit of Flight 93, or one of the firefighters or police officers who died trying to save people that day, or one secretary, accountant or mailroom boy who died on 911. Killing one man for everything that happened on 911 and since, wasnt justice.It might have been vegeance, and welcome vegeance and retribution, and the next best thing to justice but it wasnt justice. And neither is elevating the death of Bin Laden to the stature of a state event. It makes Bin Laden, in death, too important. And certainly not worth the trouble.
For all the catastrophe he brought on this country with his disastrous presidency, George W. Bush showed a lot of class declining Obama's invitation to bask in the limelight and join him in this "celebration" of Bin Laden's death at Ground Zero. Perhaps its because he recognizes the unseemliness of it all and politicizing of it all and doesn't want to be a part of any of it. Perhaps its because he doesn't want to recall his own massive failures which allowed the 911 attacks to succeed. Or perhaps its both.
The only thing all this pomp and circumstance over Bin Laden's killing has done is elevate Bin Laden to an even larger hero status in the eyes of Al-Qaeda than he was before. A president of the United States, the entire New York contigent of congress, dignitaries,the military, the news media, all converging on Ground Zero over the killing of one man -- Bin Laden. It must have made Al-Qaeda very proud.
What Obama should have done is publicly tell the number 2 man in Al-Qaeda, "and you're next"and then everyone should have gone on with their business.
Instead Obama will take the stage,the dignitaries will applaud, he will visit with some victims families, he will visit a firehouse that suffered immense casualites on that day, the news media will try and milk it for all its worth, they will all pontificate and Obama will probably make some speech that will start with "On a beautiful cloudless day ten years ago, with the sun shinning brightly..." and and not long after people will start looking at their watches.
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8 comments:
I wonder if any of the families approached for a visit told the WH to kiss their a$$....I would have.
Stewart or Colbert one poked fun at his walk to the podium for the announcement - they played some swaggering hip-hop stuff as he strutted up to the teleprompter. It really fit with his walk perfectly!
I think the only reason he gave the go-ahead for the "kill" (and it was a kill) - was opportunistic, i.e. it was a feather in his cap and that was it. In the picture of them "watching" the operation he looks petrified it might not work.
"In the picture of them "watching" the operation he looks petrified it might not work."
I agree. The media trying to portray that as Obama's "death stare" was a joke. I said he looked like a ten year old at a horror movie
Pardon me for being skeptical, but the timing of this killing is very suspicious in my opinion. There must be something pretty staggering Obama is hiding in relation to his birth certificate and records, since he released the BC and changed the subject real fast. No one is now talking about where he was born and if he is eligible to be president. Obama's history of serial lying makes me wonder about this. Conveniently there is now no body and no photos will be released. Or at least he now has people talking about the photos rather than about the birth certificate issue. Less people are talking about how bad the economy is and how many Americans are still out of work and are losing their homes - they are now arguing about whether the photos of OBL should be released. Obama singlehandledly (so he says) found him, had him in his sights, gave the order, etc. etc. etc. Just like Moses parted the Red Sea, Jesus raised Lazarus, Obama found and killed Osama. He will probably put that on his tombstone.
"For Obama to go and try to bask in the fruits of other people's labor...", that's all Obama has ever done. He is a parasite and why the media continues to prop him up is beyond me.
He has given the gratuitous thanks to the others but he is the one who basks in the glory.
No different than any other opportunity he has leeched.
Obama visit = The Royal Progress
This article reads like it was written by a studio wrestler with an anger issue.
Obama should be criticized, but not for doing what every other politician has done since the invention of politics.
Obama talks like a Progressive Democrat, but acts like a Republican further to the right than Dubya.
For being a DINO, he deserves to lose the Democratic Presidential Primary to a real Progressive Democrat. By the way, all the other incumbent DINOs also deserve to lose in their upcoming Democratic Primaries.
As far as Osama is concerned, I have yet to see any evidence that proves he was the mastermind of 9/11.
How was it possible for Osama to have smuggled in all of that thermite into three World Trade Center skyscrapers, then set hundreds of timed detonations, and then bring down all three buildings perfectly within their footprints?
Oh, that's right, Dubya's brother Marvin was in charge of security at the World Trade Center.
Kevin Schmidt
"...This article reads like it was written by a studio wrestler with an anger issue.
Obama should be criticized, but not for doing what every other politician has done since the invention of politics."
This criticism sounds like it was written by someone with severe memory issues, reading comprehension problems, information retention problems or all three. Obama deserves specifically to be criticized for doing what every politician has done since the invention of politics since he campaigned on being the opposite of that, that he was going to be different, that he was going to change the way politics was practiced, changed the way Washington worked and did business and was going to be "a new kind of politician". Unfortunately you you seem to have not been around or conscious during the 2008 primaries or presidential election when Obama's campaign slogan was "Change you can believe in". Or maybe you were one of the gullible ones who believed it and voted for him and prefer to blot it from your mind instead of wrestling with your conscience.
Marc Rubin, studio wrestler writer, now resorts to throwing chairs at his audience.
His response to me, like his blog, is completely illogical and irrelevant, as well as angry and uncivil.
I called Obama a DINO and said that is the reason for not supporting his reelection, and not for simply doing what politicians have always done.
Yet Rubin falsely claims I have a memory problem. How dishonest of him to misinterpret my words.
How ironic that by his own words, he proves himself to be the one who suffers from "severe memory issues, reading comprehension problems, information retention problems or all three.
Kevin Schmidt
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