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The Potomac Two-Step
I like to give credit when it is due. President Obama made the correct call when he gave the go ahead to take out the Somali terrorists who had hijacked an American flagged ship last week. The President was right when he gave a green light to allow Navy sharp shooters to take down the hijackers, if it was determined that the Captains life was threatened. The Capitan is truly a hero as he offered his life in exchange for his crew, and certainly the Navy Seals deserve credit for their role.
If you have been around politics as long as I have, every thing that happens in Washington gives you reason to pause and reflect. And I grew up learning to identify the Potomac two-step when I see it. Simply put, the two-step goes like this,
The President takes credit when the results are good and finds someone else to blame if things go badly. This is certainly not a new thing. All presidents have learned to dance at one time or another. During this crisis, the White House made a concretive effort to downplay the Presidents role in the situation. Administration officials would say that while the President was being kept advised of the situation, he was not commenting and was letting the commanders close to the situation make the calls.
This was by design and I saw it almost immediately, the two-step was in full effect. Thankfully, it all turned out well, we can be happy for the Capitan and his family. And we should all be proud of the training and skill of the navy seals that were able to make a very bad situation turn out as well as it could. For those of you who may be thinking, but people died… I say, the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist. But I digress,
Only after the results were in and the crisis was over, did the White House suddenly switch gears and because of the success of the operation, played up the Presidents role, almost as if he were standing on the bridge of the battleship and had given the direct order to take the terrorists down. (Sorry, I forgot we are not allowed to call them terrorists anymore).
While I am sure the President authorized the use of deadly force, and correctly so, had the operation turned out badly, the White House would have certainly claimed the President had a very limited role and would have placed the blame for the failure of the operation at the feet of the commanders on the ground.
Obama is learning to dance very well already.
Don’t worry if you didn’t see the two-step happening this time, unfortunately, there will be other opportunities.
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