The same Navy SEAL team that killed Usama bin-Laden made a daring rescue yesterday in Somalia. They rescued an American woman and a Danish man, and left nine Somali pirate kidnappers dead. The hostages were not injured.
The first indication of the rescue operation came Tuesday night in Washington from President Barack Obama himself.
As the president entered the House chambers to give his State of the Union Speech, he pointed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta standing in the crowd and said, “Leon. Good job tonight. Good job tonight.”
The president made no mention of the hostage rescue, but finished his speech with a reference to the killing of Osama bin Laden last May in a similar operation to the one conducted by Navy SEALs Tuesday night.
It’s eerily similar to the speech he made at the White House Correspondents Dinner when he knew that he had ordered the mission to get bin-Laden. The president lives a charmed life. His State of the Union address was bookended by Mitt Romney’s embarrassing tax returns which fit perfectly with his theme of economic fairness, and another successful SEAL mission which reinforced his reminder that he, not Bush, got justice for the 9/11 attacks.
If running the country were a game of craps, Obama would be the hot roller. Jimmy Carter, not so much. Remember that Obama got to the U.S. Senate by beating Alan Keyes, and to the White House by beating Sarah Palin. At some point you have to consider that he’s preternaturally lucky. And he’s taking the rest of us along for the ride.
Go Newt!!
Well, as the adage goes, it’s better to be lucky than good.
Having said that, Obama strikes me as someone who has made a lot of his own “luck”, going back to his first race for state senate when he was “lucky” that incumbent Alice Palmer was thrown off the ballot for not having enough certified signatures. Of course, Obama was the candidate who 1) had secured Palmer’s endorsement before she changed her mind and decided to run for re-election, 2) gathered more than enough signatures to withstand any challenge to getting on the ballot himself, and 3) successfully challenged Palmer’s signature petitions.
For every “Obama was lucky to run against a ticket that included Palin”, I can raise you with an “Obama destroyed war hero ‘maverick’ John McCain in all three debates”—including the one on foreign and military policy, and the one that was in a “town hall” format (at McCain’s insistence).
The man is good. IMHO, if there’s anything preternatural about him, it’s his coolness under pressure and his ability to think ahead strategically so as to give himself the most and best opportunities to keep moving forward.
This reminded of the start of the Monty Python Penguin sketch.
whenever I think about this, I just LOL.
she wasn’t some one-term politician. if you can be thrown off the ballot for not enough signatures, you are running a piece of shyt operation.
Yeah, in Palmer’s (weak) defense, she had decided not to run for re-election, changed her mind and got started late. On the other hand, Obama was cold enough (and I mean that as a compliment) to go after her signatures and get her off the ballot.
Another example: Obama “got lucky” that the House and Senate Democratic leaders both lost/left office in 2004, so that he was able to recruit the best of their staffs (e.g., Plouffe, Rouse) to work for him in the US Senate. Luck had little or nothing to do with it. A freshman Senator, new to Washington DC, doesn’t recruit top-level veteran staffers without having some skills.
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Hostage raid Somalia succesful – Obama to Panetta: “Good job tonight.” No word though on American journalist Michael Scott Moore kidnapped on Saturday. His fate is unknown, hopefully the Somali bandits will negotiate his release.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."For the Seals certainly Somalia carries a huge wound with it and so for them this success must have a feel of righteousness beyond the danger of the moment. Thus the success of their mission reminded all of us of the value of superlative planning, conduct and in Obama’s words ‘teamwork’ while leaving vengence for the historians to ponder.
I posted an article about the rescue at another place and people popped up right away saying it was regrettable there had to be any killing, the pirates are pirates because of socio-economic conditions, they hoped the SEAL team did not use unnecessary force and what happened to the Somali hostage? Did they leave him behind.
Whew!
How about the idea that you don’t want to kidnap Americans because it can prove hazardous to your continued existence on this planet?
Or maybe they should have just let the hostages remain hostages or paid the ransom?
It was an American and a Dane, so it’s more like “don’t kidnap people/aid workers who are trying to help you.”
That said, there’s nothing wrong about finding it regrettable that might-makes-right is still the ultimate arbiter. But my personal position is that by virtue of engaging in piracy, pirates don’t merit a lot of consideration. If they fought back, then shoot them until they can’t fight back anymore and I won’t waste any tears if they die.
Really hate this “Luck” meme.
Luck: Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions.
Chance? I don’t think so. The seeming preternaturalness of the events might be a clue that it has more to do with the individual’s innate abilities than to any seeming graciousness which might occur within random chance.
Obama didn’t control when Romney would release his tax forms, nor did he steer the bullets during the NAVY Seal operations. The hostages could have died. SEALs could have been killed.
Jimmy Carter didn’t crash the helicopters in the Iranian desert. He had no control over the timing of the Iranian Revolution, or whether or not they took American hostages.
Some people have luck, and others don’t.
How does having enemies like Poppy Bush greasing the wheels with the Iranians, screwing Carter factor in?
So true. I remember when the Taliban blew up a whole helicopter’s worth of Navy SEALs, and how that…um, just wrecked the President’s approval ratings…</error>
Aid workers get held hostage all the time. French, American, and British special forces are out there trying to rescue their people every other month. Often they succeed. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the special ops guys accidentally kill the hostage themselves. Africa and south Asia are dangerous places to try and make a difference.
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Chance or a bit of luck? I don’t think so, a policy should be in place and the right decision effected.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Obama’s luck goes deeper than that.
He got to the State Senate because the incumbent he challenged screwed up her paperwork and got thrown off the ballot.
He faced Alan Keyes because Governor Ryan decided he was going to bully his wife into going to a swinger’s club.
He faced John McCain because Hillary Clinton hired Mark Penn to manager her campaign.
Obama’s political abilities are beyond question, but he’s one lucky guy, too.
He faced Alan Keyes because Governor Ryan decided he was going to bully his wife into going to a swinger’s club.
Ryan was a former Governor? I thought Ryan was more known for having a hot Hollywood(and semi-famous) actress as a wife.
You are correct. the other person has the Ryans confused
Right, I’m remembering wrong. George Ryan was the Governor of Illinois.
Obama ran against Jack Ryan, the guy from that “Hunt for Red October” movie.
And the wife in question was Jeri Ryan, who played “7 of 9” on Star Trek: Voyager. Man, that was one fine and superb actress, and possibly the most suitable candidate for “Best Wearer of a Cat Suit in the 20th century.”
Jack Ryan is a total moron.
and to be fair and honest, Obama pressed the case for the problematic petitions, which was used against him later. But faking signatures is wrong and bad, and Obama was entirely correct to make the case on the technical issues. If it works, it works.
I’m finding this discussion slightly weird. Luck, good and bad, enters every life. One can cherry pick 2-3 events out of a life and claim that person is lucky. How lucky was Obama that he didn’t grow up with his biological father? How lucky was Obama that he came to office in the worst economic downturn in 75 years? How lucky was he to inherit a huge deficit and a completely insane, destructive, do-nothing opposition? Is he lucky to have an approval rating of 47% now?
But clearly Obama has made a lot of excellent decisions in his life and in his career that put him in a position where he can enjoy the breaks when he gets them. He didn’t time Romney’s tax return announcement. But Obama has been embracing the income/wealth inequity issue for months so no matter what type of incident pops up from the party of greed, Obama was in place to benefit to some degree. He didn’t plan the SEALs operation to time it with his speech (I guess?) but it is clear his use of military assets have a lot to do with limited, short term surgery and less the carpet bombing strategy. He also lives at a time when military have had decades to analyze, slice and dice the “lessons learned” from Operation Eagle Claw as well as plan and train for these types of operations.
People who make some of their own luck are those astute, disciplined few who every day of their lives try to make the superior choice for themselves and those for whom they are responsible. Is Obama lucky that he was never particularly greedy and never unfaithful to his wife? Or is he lucky that his opponent is going to be either Romney or Gingrich?
So my point is if you put yourself in a good position with every daily choice you make, you catch more good breaks than the next guy who isn’t doing the same thing. And Obama was lucky this week.
I was also going to say something along those lines. It’s nice to be lucky, but nobody is that lucky. There is tremendous skill involved, but much of it is behind the scenes. President Obama has great leadership skills, greater than any president in my lifetime with the exception of JFK.
Kudos, btw, for using “preternatural” in a context other than vampire fiction.