Rightly or wrongly, US Presidents are assigned blame when things go awry regardless if they have anything to do with it. The Iran Hostage Crisis, the Beirut Bombing, and Blackhawk Down are a few recent examples. So it's perhaps fair they should get some small measure of credit when events turn out well. Sadly, over the last few days we had the opportunity to watch how eliminationists would react under those circumstances, and it wasn’t pretty:
But isn’t that the worst part of it? While Obama idly sits at the picnic table watching his kids play in the White House yard the French Navy has acted. Here we have what is supposed to be the most powerful man in the world doing nothing while the French... THE FRENCH... use proper military force against these criminal pirates.
As it turns out, the author of that article and others like him were about as wrong as they could possibly be. So dreadfully wrong that a pointed retraction and sincere apology is their only hope of preserving whatever shreds of credibility they might still have:
President Barack Obama twice authorized the military to rescue a U.S. captain who was being held by Somali pirates and whose life appeared to be at risk, administration officials said after Sunday's rescue.
The events leading to Phillips’ safe return are still a bit sketchy. But what no one disputes is that Captain Phillips risked his life for his crew and cargo – the latter a shipment of badly needed relief supplies for starving multitudes. In a textbook example of military tactics, US forces sped to the scene and took control, patiently lulled the terrorists, allowing time, hunger, and the ceaseless ocean to take their toll, all the while covertly placing special forces in position. And on direct orders from the White House, when an opportunity presented itself, those forces were cleared to take the pirates out. Result: three dead terrorists, a fourth in custody, and one safe hero. To say the nation stands unified in admiration of Captain Phillips, his crew, the US Navy, and the entire chain of command, is an understatement.
This should never have been a political issue. And for most red, white, and blue Americans it was about as non-partisan as it gets. But nutballs on the fringe right just couldn't help themselves: while armed terrorists were holding a brave, innocent American at gunpoint, a few extremists elements were barely able to contain their glee at the thought of the terrorists winning, or at least for Phillips to remain captive or worse, all so that they could try and make the President look bad for a news cycle or two. What was for the rest of the nation a joyous Easter miracle has right-wing eliminationists furious. They’re angrily denouncing the details of the rescue, vainly trying to revise events to fit their failed ideology. It's revolting, beyond the pale, and something this nation will not soon forgive or soon forget.
