Victory Lap or Wellstone Moment?

This salient comment from Hot Air from a post about "W" graciously declining an invite by the Pantload to share the podium with him at Ground Zero with him tomorrow:

He had three NYC fundraisers in April and didn’t bother to visit Ground Zero. This smells like a campaign event. Then again, what isn’t with him?

JammieWearingFool on May 3, 2011 at 10:06 PM

Several other points about Obama's role the OBL offing:

• They knew that this day -- double-tapping of Bin Laden -- may have been coming for several months. So part of the planning must have included whether or how to release the pictures. I submit that the controversey is just to prolong the moment and keep the limelight on this rather than $4 gas, skyrocketing groceries, and flagging employment figures.
• On the subject of procrastination, it seems that Obama needed a 16-hour nap before making the decision to go ahead. I'll give hi credit for the 40-man raid and not bombing the compound. There was a decided element of risk there, particularly when the one helicopter went down. But, he almost snoozed through this opportunity, according the London Daily Mail:

Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would 'sleep on it' before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden's compound.

Hit squads of specialist Navy Seals - who were not even told who they were preparing to capture - had practised the mission at two reconstructions of the terror chiefs sprawling compound.

The mission looked set to be given the all clear last Thursday when analysts confirmed beyond doubt that Bin Laden was in busy town of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan.

But the president stunned officials when he told a national security meeting that he wanted more time to think - and disappeared out of the room.

'I'm not going to tell you what my decision is now - I'm going to go back and think about it some more,' said Obama, according to the New York Times. He then added 'I'm going to make a decision soon.'

The head of the CIA and other senior intelligence officers who were keen to proceed were left tense as they waited for the president's decision.

But the next morning after 16 hours, Obama summoned four top aides to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could speak, the president put his fist on the table and declared 'It's a go'.

• Despite his incessant back-patting, a lot of this country acknowledges Bush's policies and the military elements strengthened or put in place by Obama's predecessor played a large hand in turning OBL into crab feces at the bottom of the Arabian Sea.
• Predictably, the polls were all over the map with the homers like CBS/NYT saying he's up 11. However, Rasmussen shows almost no bump. Whatever the numbers are, it is surprising that he did not scale higher and this will surely fade as the nation returns to the reality that this guy and his gang-that-except-for-one-shining-moment-couldn't-shoot-straight are in charge of non-business-as-usual.
• Drudge's headline today is a bucket of cold water in the face of The Pantload, I am sure:

So, already the return to the ordinary, day-to-day worries as the euphoria fades. I mean, I am sure you all had great Christmases, but come 7:45 on December 26th, it's all behind us and the candy canes and carols are hollow reminders of the spirit that abided so plentifully the day before.

Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

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