If You Can Believe This Spin...

Wow - David Sanger of the Times is peddling the notion that Obama's sacking of Gen. McChrystal was a big win for the White House:

In Week of Tests, Obama Reasserts His Authority
By DAVID E. SANGER

After two months in which an oil gusher seemed to underscore the limits of his powers, President Obama spent the last week trying to reassert control over a triumvirate of forces that almost always test a new president’s authority: the military, the markets and the lobbyists.

Mr. Obama’s remarkable victories in little more than a week, nearly a year and a half into a presidency that was saddled from the start by two wars and a terrifying financial plunge, may not prove to be lasting.

Remarkable victories!?!  People were worried about Afghanistan, but I don't think there was general concern that Obama's team was utterly divided (but obviously there should have been).  On with the celebration:

“This is a clear respite from the theme that Obama had lost control,” said David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration official who wrote the definitive history of the National Security Council, the organization American presidents have used for 60 years to assert authority around the country and the world. “He sent a loud and clear message to the generals about who is in charge. And he has engineered a pivot-point in U.S. economic history, an end, or at least a big change, to the ‘leave it to the markets’ era.”

...One top national security aide noted to a reporter on Wednesday that the decision to oust General McChrystal and replace him with Gen. David A. Petraeus was “considered, decided and executed in less than 36 hours” and sent a message that the president would not tolerate what he called “division” in the ranks of his team after he had set strategy.

The president would not tolerate "division"?  What has he been tolerating for months?  And what is he going to do about civilians Eikenberry and Holbrooke, who seem to have trouble getting on board with the plan for Afghanistan?  (VP Biden is also part of the "division", but he can't be fired.)

Eventually the botox wears off and Mr. Sanger loses his straight face:

The messy encounter with General McChrystal forced Mr. Obama to reassert his faith in a strategy in Afghanistan (a troop surge, a counterinsurgency strategy that exposes American forces to significant danger, and the eventual transfer of recaptured territory to Afghan government hands) that so far has shown little signs of working. The left remains deeply apprehensive about his growing commitment to the war; the right argues that his 18-month deadline to begin withdrawing troops is a sign of absence of commitment.

When Mr. Obama declared, “I welcome debate, but I won’t tolerate division,” it amounted to an unspoken acknowledgment that his national security team remained split, and never really ended the argument over whether the current approach to the war was the right one. Even without General McChrystal, the argument seems bound to flare again in December, when it is up for a major review.

The messy encounter also forced Obama to repudiate his silly July 2011 withdrawal deadline.

A few more successes like this and Obama will be booed off the stage by 2012.

Comments

[Melinda Romanoff]

Permanent power, here we come!

[Barry Dauphin]

Sanger is saying what all the journos who appear on TV say. Washington Week was a real howler. Obama sends a message to the military by making McChrystal fly 14 hours back showing he's in charge... These guys actually believe this cr@p. They are living in an alternate universe, where they join Pauline Kael.

[narciso]

Sanger, one cannot forget, printed some of the leaked battleplans before the Iraq WAr. However his book 'the Challenge' shows she's
not as trite ans unoriginal a reporter as his weekly work for the Times would indicate, particularly on the Iranian nuclear program

[All the News That's Left to Print.]

I'd say the change in the ROE was a big win for the military. And yeah, it would be the leftist loons who'd see Obama sacking his hand-picked general as a 'big win'.
===============

[Andrew X]

Isn't this as totally a brilliant move as a coach pulling a starting but under-performing quaterback and replacing him with..... the teams other high profile quarterback, who used to be the starter, by the way? Oooooo, sheer frikkin' genuis!

Our media passed pathetic a long time ago. Plus, did Obama consider that now Gen. Petraeus owns his sorry ass? What's Obama gonna do down the line, fire Petraeus if he's not working out? Fire number three?? Frankly, if he wins it, all credit will go to Petreaus, and if he loses, blame will likely go to Obama.

And will just of those "brilliant"-sayers, knee-pad wearers all, have the balls to call the Democratic Party on all the nonsense and gibberish they laid on Petreaus over the surge, when they showed themselves to be utter strategic neophytes who held him and the men who served him in contempt? Didn't think so.

Why pick Petreaus? "Because he won that war that we lost."

Ah, thanks for clearing that up.

[Cecil Turner]

Firing his own general is hard to defend as political brilliance. But if Petraeus delivers, it'll end up that way. I just wish that was the President's goal, instead of an accidental bug in the plan to defend his and his idiotic sidekick's reputations as great military thinkers (in their own minds).

[Jack is Back!]

Nothing could be better than for O to think he is smart and tough since he could get rid of a 4 star. It will go to his head and he will start to think of his infallibility again. Every time he goes down this road he screws up. Nothing could be better.

[jimmyk]

Obama's response to the question about the troop withdrawal deadline is classic Obama diversion. We should call it the Obama two-step: First, the straw man (“We did not say, starting in July 2011, suddenly there will be no troops from the United States or allied countries in Afghanistan”). Then the lie ("“We said we’d begin a transition phase that would allow the Afghan government to take more and more responsibility”).

What he actually said on December 1, 2009 was that the additional troops would allow us "to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011." And of course Biden amplified on that by saying "in July of 2011, you're going to see a whole lot of people moving out. Bet on it."

[hit and run]

The media like Sanger are simply on-board with Obama's thinking in declaring this a big win.

Obama picked Petraeus for the week-long bump in the polls first (big win!) and the long-term chances of winning Afghanistan second (boring,who cares!).

[bio mom]

There is no week long bump in the polls. Today even Newsweek has him at 48%.

[Janet]

Actually, Obama seems to be missing in action. The WaPo has gone dark on Obama. Nothing nice to say?, unsure how to spin the terrible news?...then say nothing at all.

[hit and run]

I'm talking about Ras at minus 14 today. A week from now,barring unforseen events,Obama will be back closer to minus 20.

6/26/2010 -14
6/25/2010 -15
6/24/2010 -13
6/23/2010 -13
6/22/2010 -13
6/21/2010 -15
6/20/2010 -16
6/19/2010 -20
6/18/2010 -21
6/17/2010 -20
6/16/2010 -20

[LouP]

Ladies and gentlemen: meet the true political opposition - the media. Many, many of the Obama mysteries can be explained by understanding we have our first virtual President: created by the media, elected by the media, and maintained by the media.

[narciso]

I wonder how they will spin this particular development;

< a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/06/obama-nominates-911-terror-lawyer-james-cole-for-deputy-attorney-general.html"> obama nominates 9-11
terror lawyer james cole for deputy attorney
general

[narciso]

His client was Prince Nayef ,the interior minister who alleged the Jews were somehow
behind 9/11, their Tom Clark to naive Ramsey
Clark, Mohammed, who sought to 'rehabilitate'
AQ, and nearly was blown up for his troubles

[boris]

obama nominates 9-11
terror lawyer james cole for deputy attorney
general

[Gmax]

Remember the Guiness stout commercial?

Sanger is just yelling "brilliant" and hoping someone buys the product.

[narciso]

I must have left a comma out or something in the search string, thanks for clearing it up,
Boris

[[email protected]]

After disaster after disaster, I'm just as shocked that the media are shaking their pom poms like Obama just cured cancer or something.

[Porchlight]

I think the Muddle does see this as a win for Obama. He looks Presidential and assertive and stuff. Truman, Macarthur and all that (not that the Muddle knows who those people are, but the media mentioned it, so they believe).

[narciso]

I think the muddle's thought bubble is more often seen in the likes of CBS or Pew's latest
where they rate energy and foreign policy as
his strong points, that sounds like dispatches
from that mystery planet on Futurama

[Gmax]

Truman was wildly unpopular for firing McArthur. I dont think a bunch of Journalists all yelling "brilliant" at the same time, means anything at all about what the muddle thinks. The muddle at the moment, is busily trying to figure out how to put beans on the table and avoid the creditor calls. They just are not that into Zero at the moment...

[Thomas Collins]

Jimmyk noted the following on Obama's two-step on withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan:

"Then the lie ("“We said we’d begin a transition phase that would allow the Afghan government to take more and more responsibility”)."

Perhaps Obama has actually figured out that it is his war now, so that no amount of blaming GWB will work if the serious threat to US national security of Afghanistan and Pakistan harboring, nurturing and, in certain cases (such as ISI) coordinating with terrorists isn't ended.

Unfortunately, even if Obama has recognized that it's his war, and that he will be held accountable for the result, Obama doesn't have quite the sense of using war to accomplish strategic goals as, say, James Knox Polk did.

[narciso]

No. he doesn't T.C., I'm sure this person would in the LUN though

[Jane says obamasucks]

OT:

One of the lawyers who tried to prosecute the black panthers voter intimidation case is speaking out. I blogged about it here.

[hit and run]

It's been noted in a number of places,but I'll point to this post over at Hot Air's green room for the quote:

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/25/christopher-dodd-on-landmark-financial-overhaul-no-one-will-know-until-this-is-actually-in-place-how-it-works%e2%80%9d/>Christopher Dodd on Landmark Financial Overhaul: “No one will know until this is actually in place how it works”

Nancy and health care bill redux.

In the green room post,Rovin says...

Now before some editor at the Washington Post decides to go in and edit Washington Post Staff Writer Brady Dennis’s quote of Chris Dodd’s “No one will know….”, could some one here please do a screen capture and let me know if “you’ve got it”?

Too late,it's been scrubbed.

Of course.

But for now,if you search Dodd's statement in google,WaPo still shows up in the results:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us%3AIE-Address&q=%22No+one+will+know+until+this+is+actually+in+place%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=>"No one will know until this is actually in place"

But if you go to the article,Dodd's statement is nowhere to be found.

If Dave Weigel still worked there,this never would have happened.

[GUS]

The war is going badly Obama has done nothing to win and soldiers are dying.
So his BRILIANT STRATEGY is to read ROLLING STONE and get his feelings hurt.
Then he fires the General NOT FOR LOSING, but for hurting his feelings.

Sanger is a clown.

[matt]

as the country reels from the oil spill and the McChrystal affair and the slowly emerging mess of the health care bill, Barry is back out there ramming through another incomprehensible mess and Nancy is refusing to introduce a budget bill.

We are watching as our republic is being flushed down the toilet. This is Alinsky personified.

[Jane says obamasucks]

I completely agree Matt.

[Porchlight]

Yep. And even people who ought to know better continue to attribute this to the administration's incompetence.

[Captain Hate]

Nancy is refusing to introduce a budget bill.

At the risk of asking an extremely dumb question: Doesn't that violate the responsibilities of Congress per the Constitution?

[Ignatz]

I don't think there's a constitutional requirement for a yearly budget CH, but there is one IIRC in the budget act of 1974 or whenever it was.