It’s good to see the State Run Media able to run a serious “look at how great our messiah is!” article for a change, rather than the normal “oh, crap, what has he done this time? Spinning this will be hawwwwwd!” story of late. I was getting worried that the stress of spinning would cause too many breakdowns among the journalists, and binge drinking among the editors.
Anyhow, the original headline of the story was For Obama, Decision to Remove General Came Quickly (you can see it at Memeorandum and in the title bar of your Internet program), which has been changed to Short, Tense Deliberation, Then a General Is Gone, probably changed because they did not want to make Obama look petty and vindictive, his normal decision making mode.
After the first few paragraphs of the article telling us that Obama spent the first 36 hours agonizing, talking with all sorts of people, from the military to the political advisors, even Colin Powell, he made the decision, and….
But this is the highest profile sacking of his presidency. The time between Mr. Obama’s first reading of the Rolling Stone article and his decision to accept General McChrystal’s resignation offers an insight into the president’s decision-making process under intense stress: He appears deliberative and open to debate, but in the end, is coldly decisive.
I suppose “petty and vindictive” can also be termed “coldly decisive.” Sort of the same. When he decided that he would spend most of his time in office Blaming Bush, we could charitably call that “coldly decisive.” When he decided to look to assign blame and destroy BP, rather than fixing the issue, that was “coldly decisive,” right? Same thing with playing golf and spending little time on the actual oil spill cleanup.
More humor in attempting to build up The One, who numbers are continuing to free fall
In a subsequent meeting with his Afghan war council, Mr. Obama delivered a tongue-lashing, instructing his advisers to stop bickering among themselves.
“The president said he didn’t want to see pettiness; that this was not about personalities or reputations — it’s about our men and women in uniform,†said a senior administration official, who like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity in offering an account of the last two days.
If you were spewing your morning drink of choice reading the bold portion, yeah, me too. I don’t really need to mention that that has been all his presidency has been about, do I?
Anyhow, just to chime in with my 7 cents (the cost of advice has gone up due to the coming taxation from our massive deficit), it was correct for Obama to accept McChrystal’s resignation. Quite frankly, I believe he should have removed him himself, rather than allowing the resignation. I know quite a few folks on the Right were saying “hey, it wasn’t that bad,” however, it was. Even though most of the comments weren’t really harsh, you do not diss your superiors in that manner, no matter what business you are in, and especially not when one has achieved the high rank that McChrystal had. You know there will be consequences. Regardless of how the media has treated military folks who speak out previously, McChrystal was wrong.
That said, notice that when it is About Obama, he does act quickly. I wonder if there is a way to make the BP Spill about Obama personally?
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU
Yeesh… I guess none of our esteemed colleagues in the press are very proficient with a calendar, since that seems to be pretty much mandatory for measuring this Administration’s decisionmaking process…
Now that most of the Flak has dissipated, I will now toss my two cents in.
The General gave an interview to a known leftist publication. In a theater of war that the said publication has railed against since the opening of hostilities. And when a General or Flag officer does comment on the weakness of his seniors, including the CinC of the Armed Forces of The United States, being relieved is the least of his worries. And General McChrystal was an Obama supporter in his own politics. But when wearing the uniform, one does place a career at risk when defaming the President, Congress, Cabinet, et al. Objective neutrality is a good thing. Yes Sir. Aye Aye Sir. Pretty much covers it.
Go back to MacArthur and Singlaub. Generals and Admirals get canned all the time. It is a fact of life. But with General Petraus being appointed to that command position in Afghanistan, obammy has now turned his own nutcase backers against him. Remember the Betray Us ad. And dear reader giving the General the “what for” when the boy president had no ******* idea of anything pertaining to offensive combat operations?
Shakespeare said it so well…….strange bedfellows indeed.