In today's news we learned that last spring when president Obama gave the go-ahead to take out Osama bin Laden, vice president Joe Biden advised against undertaking the mission. Biden told Democrats at a congressional retreat this past weekend that aside from Leon Panetta, all of the advisers at the final meeting regarding the potential raid hedged their bets, in essence saying that it was a 50-50 proposition whether or not to go. Panetta, whose CIA was the source of the basic information underlying the raid, was in favor of going ahead. When Obama asked Biden for his opinion, Biden said to hold off until there was more information, and this is Biden's own account of the meeting.
This is an extremely revealing story, but not in the way that Biden means it. Clearly, Biden's take on the meeting is that despite the wishy washy advisers who refused to take a position, Obama moved ahead boldly and took out bin Laden. Indeed, that is one way to look at it. Biden even says that Obama made clear that he thought that his "presidency was at stake." That makes me wonder about what was really going on. That Obama was making political calculations regarding his presidency is bad enough, but at least he came to the correct conclusion. My question is why all these high ranking members of the administration were hemming and hawing. How can Obama function with a cabinet filled with folks who are more interested in protecting their own asses rather than doing what is right for the country? And what does all this say about Biden and his readiness to be president if something happens to Obama. Clearly, Biden never gets it right. Four years ago, Biden was still calling for Iraq to be split into three countries, a plan which would have led to eternal war in the region. Biden's foreign policy instincts make Obama actually look good. Obama should dump him off the ticket in the next election.
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