Birthers, Deathers, Wimpers

An editorial in the New York Times, “The Myth of Obama’s Weakness.”

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. “It’s got to do with experience, knowledge and judgment,” Mr. McCain said, “none of which Senator Obama has.” …

… 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.

Ah, never say never. Like the belief the President was born in Kenya, the belief that the President is a wimp refuses to die.

Yesterday I spotted this headline from the British tabloid, The Daily Mail: “Obama took SIXTEEN HOURS to make up his mind about Bin Laden mission.” Beneath the deadline was a blurb: “President ‘slept on it’ as tense military chiefs awaited decision.”

This does jive with the account given in Time magazine, but somehow it sounds different in Time:

The decision to attack had been made days earlier by the President. He gathered his senior intelligence, military and diplomatic team together in the Situation Room on Thursday afternoon to hear his options. …

… The intelligence professionals said they did not know for sure that bin Laden was in the compound. The case was good, but circumstantial. The likelihood, officials told the President, was between 50% and 80%. No slam dunk. Obama went around the table asking everyone to state their opinion. He quizzed his staff about worst case scenarios–the possibility of civilian casualties, a hostage situation, a diplomatic blow-up with Pakistan, a downed helicopter. He was presented with three options: Wait to gather more intelligence, attack with targeted bombs from the air, or go in on the ground with troops. The room was divided about 50-50, said a person in the room. …

… Obama left the meeting without signaling his intent. He wanted to sleep on it. At about 8:00 a.m. on Friday, just before he boarded a helicopter that would take him to tour tornado damage in Alabama, Obama called his senior aides into the Diplomatic Room. He told them his decision: A helicopter assault. At that point, the operation was taken out of his hands. He was trusting the fate of his presidency to luck.

Of course, it was a difficult decision. Lives were at stake, not to mention a presidency. The case for doing the mission was not clear cut. It was not at all unreasonable for the President to take a few hours to decide.

But merely by popping out the words “sixteen hours,” the Daily Mail kept hope alive, never mind that the Daily Mail is mostly known for losing libel suits to defamed celebrities. Thanks to the capitalization of some letters, wingnuts could still call the President a wimp.

Since then, from somewhere in the rightie hive mind has come the fiction that President Obama wasn’t even involved in the decision to raid the compound

“What Valerie Jarrett, and the president, did not know is that Leon Panetta had already initiated a program that reported to him –and only him, involving a covert on the ground attack against the compound.”

This site claims to have solid information from a “Washington Insider” — who remains unnamed, of course — that President Obama could not make a decision, but was “overruled” by “military/intelligence officials,” and the actual decision to raid the compound was made by Leon Panetta.

I rather doubt the director of the CIA has the authority to order Navy SEALs to so much as make lunch, but let’s not let reality get in the way of a good conspiracy theory, eh?

The usual loons — Pam Geller et al. — are adding their own unique details to this story. Soon they’ll be saying that the President had to be locked in the basement for several hours so that he couldn’t get word to bin Laden to leave the compound. The birthers are becoming wimpers.