Baller

This one is even better but it won't embed - click through please.

[thanks DJ JD and dermablogue for the images]

Presidents are busy

This is Obama's official schedule from the last National Security Meeting before he gave the kill order on Osama.  Man, being President must be hard. This day he 1) had a briefing on national security and the economy 2) meeting on war in Libya 3) meeting with your formal chief rival about SOMETHING 4) announcement of new national security team. etc. etc. Somewhere in there he had a meeting on killing Osama. And this is just the official schedule, who knows what else crept in there. Oh and meet another head of state. I have no idea how Presidents can manage all these different balls in the air.

9:30AM Pool Call Time

10:15AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

10:50AM THE PRESIDENT holds a meeting on Libya
Situation Room
Closed Press

11:30AM THE PRESIDENT meets with Secretary of State Clinton
Oval Office
Closed Press

2:05PM THE PRESIDENT meets with a group of influential Hispanics from across the country on the importance of fixing our nation's broken immigration system to meet our 21st century economic and national security needs so that America can win the future
Roosevelt Room
Closed Press

3:10PM THE PRESIDENT makes a personnel announcement
Rose Garden
Open Press

3:45PM THE PRESIDENT meets with Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli
Oval Office
Closed Press

4:20PM THE PRESIDENT and Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli will deliver statements to the press
Oval Office
Pooled Press (Gather Time 4:05PM - Brady Press Briefing Room)

Useful things to keep in mind

From the always-interesting Jeff Goldberg: 


"SPIN: Segmented, polycentric, ideologically-networked. This is how we have to think of al Qaeda today. Bin Laden's death is of tremendous symbolic and moral importance, but it does not change the fact that the organization he founded -- and, more to the point, the ideas he propagated -- will live on in mutated form for years to come. We should not be surprised by the next al Qaeda attack."


True. This still feels awesome though.

Journalists must enjoy writing sentences like this:

"Bin Laden resisted the assault force, and was shot in the face during a firefight."

Presidents are badasses

People think of the president as being fairly removed from military tactics. That really isn't the case. Here's a little breakdown of the decision-making process for killing Osama that highlights how engaged the president is (from politico):

"The original plan for the raid was to bomb the house, but President Obama ultimately decided against that. “The helicopter raid was riskier. It was more daring,” an official said. “But he wanted proof. He didn’t want to just leave a pile of rubble.” Officials also knew there were 22 people living there, and Obama wanted to be sure not to kill all the civilians. So he ordered officials to come up with an air-assault plan. The forces held rehearsals of the raid on April 7 and April 13, with officials monitoring the action from Washington."

And, from paleoconservative Peter King: "I give the president full credit for this, it took a lot of guts,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.), whose district was home to dozens of New York City firefighters and cops killed in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept 11th 2001. “He’s the commander-in-chief, he was the guy who put it on the line. There was no guarantee –none - that this would work. We could have had our helicopters shot down… It was a really delicate operation.”

Regardless of what you think of Obama, he's pretty clearly our funniest president

I was charged by a moose once

Most people who know me already knew this. Here's a video reenactment