Biden: Failure of OBL Raid Would’ve Made Obama ‘One-Term President’

[gateley]

Vice President Joe Biden says that President Obama put his job on the line when he authorized the covert raid into Pakistan last year to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

“This guy’s got a backbone like a ramrod,” Biden told a crowd of campaign donors in Washington, D.C., Monday night. “He said, ‘Go,’ knowing his presidency was on the line. Had he failed in that audacious mission, he would’ve been a one-term president.” /snip

In a forthcoming Obama campaign documentary on the president’s first term, Biden and former President Bill Clinton both reflect on the bin Laden raid, hailing it as a “tough decision.”

“He took the harder and more honorable path,” Clinton says in an excerpt of “The Road We’ve Traveled” released Monday. “When I saw what had happened, I thought to myself, ‘I hope that’s the call I would have made.’” /snip

More>>>> http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/biden-failure-of-obl-raid-wouldve-made-obama-one-term-president/

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I imagine the documentary will be full of praise and essentially a campaign commercial, which is great, but I hate how the news services presented the headline this way. I expect a lot of "Did Biden say the wrong thing about Obama being a One Term President?"

[Z_I_Peevey]

1. Yes, it took some heroic effort

on the part of the ABC news headline writer to make that Biden quote into a negative, but by God he or she strove mightily and got the job done.

Thanks, ridiculous media, for never disappointing.

[gateley]

3. I could have posted from any of the news services and they all pretty much

highlighted that bit. Pisses me off.

[PatSeg]

2. I suppose

there will always be people who will find fault with what was said. I think it is a very powerful portrayal of a president, but those who hate him will see what they wish.

[gateley]

4. The REAL message is that Obama has nerves of steel and the

strength to make such a momentous move and decision, putting the welfare of the country ahead of his political future.

These headlines (and all the news agencies pretty much presented their headlines the same way) make it seem like this was the ONLY thing that could keep Obama in office, that his future as POTUS was pretty shaky and this would have been the last straw.

But as I said, I've been known to overreact on what I think is less than stellar Biden reporting. I haven't heard a thing about it on TV yet this morning, and I thought, when I read this, it would be the gossip of the day.

[WingDinger]

5. Should he use that steely agenda for community organizing, rethugs are gonna beg for mercy.

Already, the money men are abandoning Obama. this will free him from their sway. With a fresh load of political capital, Obama will be fearsome. If Rethugs LOOSE the House, watch out. Calls for second amendment remedies will be forthcoming.

Hey, that would make a good bumper sticker. Republicans laughed when we lost our houses. Lets show them what losing the HOUSE feels like.




As for Biden, he already said he was against the plan. Thus, he thought the threat of losing the second term was too much price to bear. He is in a tiny sense, giving Obama a backhanded compliment. In so doing, shows the genuineness of Biden's assessment. Obama chose the most dangerous clinical act. Losing a heli in the process. No men killed.

That is true heroism.

[gateley]

7. I didn't know that Biden was against the plan, but I'm not surprised he will admit that Obama was

right and he was wrong. I respect Biden immeasurably.

And I stand in awe of Obama's strength in making that tough, tough call.

[Drale]

6. If that raid had failed

we would have never heard about it, so it would not have mattered.

[gateley]

8. Hmmm. I hadn't thought of that. I always assume, especially these days,

that the truth always finds its way to the surface, but there are bound to be countless operations of which we're unaware -- successful or not.

Until the participants write their memoirs a few years later.

[Swede]

10. Good thing they don't have cameras and the internet over there.

nt

[joeybee12]

11. That's what I think, too...nt

[gratuitous]

9. Summary Execution! USA! USA!

America, fuck yeah!

Who needs those quaint old documents, anyway?

I mean, besides me, and my irrational attachment to a bunch of meaningless oaths and laws in our brave new world where with the ordering of a raid or the push of a button we make someone judge, jury and executioner. It's so much more efficient and streamlined, and the envy of every civilized nation on the planet. And our victims are all very, very bad people. Truly.

[Nye Bevan]

12. Quite possibly. The Jimmy Carter comparisons would have been non-stop if it had been a debacle.

Obama is lucky as well as good.