Obama was briefed 17x in four days of piracy drama

[Adelante]

An Early Military Victory for Obama

...

Throughout the past four days, White House officials played down Obama's role in the hostage drama. Until yesterday, he made no public statements about the pirates.

In fact, aides said yesterday, Obama had been briefed 17 times since he returned from his trip abroad, including several times from the White House Situation Room. And without giving too many details, senior White House officials made it clear that Obama had provided the authority for the rescue.

"The president's focus was on saving and protecting the life of the captain," one adviser said. Friday evening, after a National Security Council telephone update, Obama granted U.S. forces what aides called "the authority to use appropriate force to save the life of the captain." On Saturday at 9:20 a.m., Obama went further, giving authority to an "additional set of U.S. forces to engage in potential emergency actions."

A top military official, Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of the Fifth Fleet, explained that Obama issued a standing order that the military was to act if the captain's life was in immediate danger.

"Our authorities came directly from the president," he said. "And the number one authority for incidents if we were going to respond was if the captain's life was in immediate danger. And that is the situation in which our sailors acted."

After the rescue ended, White House officials immediately offered expanded information about Obama's role, though the president simply released a statement praising the troops and expressing pride in the captain's bravery.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/12/AR2009041203002.html

No Drama Obama :)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. yeah, no kidding... ** would have had

a live TV speechifying event and turned the goons loose on TV

[EmilyAnne]

4. Palin would have attacked from a helicopter.

McCain would channeled Slim Pickens from Dr. Strangelove.

[EmilyAnne]

5. Here's McCain taking out the pirate camps...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcW_Ygs6hm0

[SpiralHawk]

6. George Bush would have gone AWOL

The typical republicon Chickenhawk FAIL MANUEVER

[fasttense]

2. Seems to me the last president was hardly ever briefed on

the drowning of thousands of American citizens in New Orleans. He eventually got a brief but wasn't it like seven days after the flooding?

Thank God bush wasn't pretending to be a president at the time.

[Arugula Latte]

11. Hey, come on. That's not fair! He had other priorities at the time:

[Spazito]

12. I remember his staff had to put it in pictures (video/DVD) and beg him...

to watch it days after the tragedy began. A world of difference between President Obama and bush, contrary to what some would like us to believe.

[bluerum]

3. WTF!?! No grandstanding on an aircraft carrier?

[tanyev]

7. George Bush briefed on Aug. 6, 2001:

The alarming August 6, 2001, memo from the CIA to the President -- "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" -- has been widely noted in the past few years. But, also in August, CIA analysts flew to Crawford to personally brief the President -- to intrude on his vacation with face-to-face alerts.

The analytical arm of CIA was in a kind of panic mode at this point. Other intelligence services, including those from the Arab world, were sounding an alarm. The arrows were all in the red. They didn't know the place or time of an attack, but something was coming. The President needed to know.

And, at an eyeball-to-eyeball intelligence briefing during this urgent summer, George W. Bush seems to have made the wrong choice.

He looked hard at the panicked CIA briefer. "All right," he said. "You've covered your ass, now."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200608240013

[nichomachus]

8. See, he's not so smart -- you think he would have gotten it the first time

[Beetwasher]

9. This Pirate Escapade Is NO SMALL THING!

There is nothing like an early success like this, no matter how operationally scaled it is, to give confidence to your troops. As CIC, Obama's troops are all of them. They now now something about his command capability. I have to think they like what they saw.

The psychological significance of the success of this thing can't be measured.

[lostnotforgotten]

10. Why Is The Number Of Briefings Significant?

eom

[eridani]

13. What?!? You mean he didn't dash off for a few weeks of fake "brush clearing"? n/t

[Cha]

14. Thankfully we have President Obama

now who is the one where the buck stops.