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The Case for a Panicky President « The Washington Independent

Jul 31, 202094 Shares94.2K Views
I woke up this morning to the Grandy and Andy show on 630 WMAL, conservative talkerswho gave the president a “B” grade on his handling of the Somilian pirate situation.
“He has saved the world,” grumbled Andy. “You are led to believe that this morning.”
“Had this led to a disastrous outcome we would be blasting the president,” said Grandy. “To the extent that the opposite happened, credit is due. If this is not a test it is certainly a pop quiz and I think the president aced it.”
“I would have given him credit,” said Andy, “had he stepped to the podium last week and said look, we’re taking care of this.”
Most of the callers agreed with Andy, which confuses me.
We had a fairly well-argued debate last year about the wisdom of the president “elevating” rogue states by meeting with their leaders. What could elevate a group of stateless pirates more than the president of the United States issuing a bellicose statement about them, marking them as a great threat to liberty, hunting them to the ends of the earth, and so on?
Knowing what we know now — that the president was monitoring the situation and by Friday night had ordered the successful Navy Seals rescue of the American hostage — it doesn’t make any sense to argue that the president should have made the situation worse. But I’m hearing that all over talk radio.
Hajra Shannon

Hajra Shannon

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