Was the Capture of bin Laden a Political Ploy?
Al Ritter
With spiraling approval polls Obama used two issues within a 7 day period to drive up his popularity. The first issue was the production of his long form certificate of live birth, which sought to finally put to rest the question of his citizenship.
It seems to me that the “discovery” of Osama bin Laden’s hideaway was more than just a coincidence some 7 days later. The Seal Team 6 had been practicing mock attacks on a staged area in the Bagram Airbase facility in Afghanistan since April in hopes of catching him off guard in the near future in his makeshift home in Pakistan.
Regardless of the implications of the Pakistani government’s involvement in the hiding of bin Laden, Barack Obama certainly benefitted from his capture and execution. Whether the Islamic world approves or disapproves of his actions Sunday night/Monday morning, it is certain that his approval polls have gone up some 9 points.
I have long said that there are NO coincidences in politics and I certainly believe that this is no exception. Obama has taken a page directly from Rahm Emanuel’s book of, “never let a crisis go to waste.” The larger question is, will this recent climb in his approval rating have any staying power, or will the multitude of his problems drag him back, and if so in what time period?
