Eight months after George W. Bush took office, the United States suffered a grievous attack which killed thousands of innocent men, women, and children. This attack was possible, at least in part, because the president was incompetent, and his staff had other priorities, such as tort reform, cutting taxes on the investor class, and exporting US assets to locations with less oversight or annoyances like OSHA or ERISA.
Barack Obama came into office in the midst of a global economic collapse. Major US and world markets were insolvent, and a debt crisis loomed.
In spite of this, President Obama knew that our national security was not something we could look away from.
Spokesmen for the Republican and Conservative groups have demanded action. Fox News is one of the leaders on the charge, demanding immediate and large-scale acts of terrorism as punishment for removing them from office:
Scheuer: The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. Because it's going to take a grass-roots, bottom-up pressure. Because these politicians prize their office, prize the praise of the media and the Europeans. It's an absurd situation again. Only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.
That's not a warning. It's a call to action: Americans have questioned the authority of the Party of God, and must be punished.
Again:
Only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.
If someone facing one of our soldiers said that, we would have some sympathy if the soldier punched him in the face until he was a toothless lump of idiot. But because the man who said it - to the cheers of millions - wore a suit and presented it as "we report, you decide", he's still walking around, presumably with perfectly good teeth.
Only weeks later, the FBI, working with US intelligence groups and local police departments, broke up a plot to attack US buildings in a manner almost identical to white supremacist and teabagger Timothy McVeigh, and anotherwhich planned to attack commuters.
Imagine a world where, last November, we elected John "bomb Iran!" McCain and Sarah "quitta from Wasilla" Palin.
Imagine Vice President Palin giving speeches and facing hour-long "murderer's row" interviews and press conferences. Tough questions. Personal questions. 24-hour coverage by five national news networks, four international, and a room full of veterans the likes of Bob Woodward.
Imagine the Vice President of the United Stated getting pissed off and quitting on a Friday afternoon.
John McCain is a good guy. I honestly like and admire him. But seriously, McCain handling the impending failure of our largest banking and industrial companies, while also fighting three simultaneous wars, and having his second-in-command an unstable amateur who falls apart after one bad interview?
I've got my quibbles with some things Obama has (and hasn't) accomplished. But holy freaking cow, it's important to remember just how bad it could have been. 50-odd million people wanted those two making US military and fiscal policy, cleaning up the Madoffs, Stanfords, and Ensigns - while also keeping three military balls up in the air, and, ohbytheway, reforming the most bloated insurance scam on the planet - over the hysterical objections of thousands of lobbyists and teabaggers.