Which raises the obvious question: Can we finally agree that whatever Barack Obama is, he's not Jimmy Carter

That's one crazy non-sequitur, dude...on the defensive much?

Well, the real Jimmy Carter wasn't the Jimmy Carter that the righties constructed for public consumption either.

Like the 'malaise' speech where he never used the word, and was well received by the public opinion polls instead of being vilified.

I've never understood how Carter was responsible for a helicopter crashing in a unforcasted sandstorm in an Iranian desert.

At least Jimmy didn't fly a birthday cake with several government officials to appease the hostage takers. Or make a deal with them to release the US hostages only after Reagan was sworn in. Or sell military stuff to islamic governments from invisible funds and use the proceeds to fund illegal arms to south American terrorists. [/end of rant].

Just wait, the GOP wingnuts will find SOMETHING to be horrifed about that justifies impeachment of Obama in the way the pirates were dealt with. I'm taking bets.

"In fairness", this was an easier hostage rescue than Carter was faced with. Jimmy made a rescue decision - a tough one - and it failed. I don't consider that anyone's fault. I think a fairer comparison is that Obama is no Ronald Reagan, who decided to swiftly pull up stakes and leave the evil deed unpunished when hundreds of U.S.Marines, along with dozens of French paratroopers, were blown up by terrorists in Lebanon.

So Jimmy Carter was a bad shot but Barack Obama is a good shot, as attested by his personal marksmanship in taking out the pirates........Oh, wait. I realize that (for whatever reason) you feel bothered by wacky comparisons to Jimmy Carter (whom it's somehow OK for liberals to demonize too), but could we leave your gleeful celebration of manly killing out of it? God, that was like a freeper post.

I think if The Onion was writing this up, they'd make it an Ender's Game thing. Obama plays a first-person shooter game to take out pirates holding a hostage, but then learns...it was all real!

As nice as it would be to get folks thinking that Obama is a strong commander in chief, I don't understood why the incredible job of the Navy Seals should be credited to him. To state the obvious - he wasn't on the boat. Likewise, if - God forbid - one of them had accidentally shot the hostage instead.

At first, the towline was 200 feet long, but as darkness gathered and seas became rough, the towline was shortened to 100 feet, the officials said. It was unclear if this was done with the pirates’ knowledge.

Heh. Seriously, Navy SEALS versus Somali pirats? Was there really a chance?

Ezra Klein, Obamafluffer.

Hey, the Bush military did a great job over the weekend!

Maybe now the American Navy can crack down on the root source of this piracy: The combination of rampant political corruption and the european piracy ooff of Somali waters.

If we didn't throw their country into chaos, and then stand by while europe used Somalia to dumpo unclear and bio waste, these pirates wouldn't even exist.

Enough with the Jimmy bashing. Everyone forgets he tried something like this for the embassy hostages (Operation Evening Light) and it failed due to the much greater complexity.

soullite - So you are advocating using military force to root out another country's corruption? I hope you are supporting what we are doing in Afganistan then.

I think this post needs context. In the days before the rescue, conservative pundits and radio hosts were arguing that Obama was a weak president who refused to make a stand and save this American hostage. They were primed for disaster. Since the rescue, on talk radio this morning, the conversation has turned to what Obama SHOULD have done - ordered the Seals in earlier, given a statement or speech to calm a panicked nation, etc.

Grim but true, there were conservatives who expected this to be the first failed Obama test.

Grim but true, there were conservatives who expected this to be the first failed Obama test.

Ironic that Obama had managed to fail so many progressive tests (i.e. FISA, State Secrets, Favreau, Faith-based Initiatives)sooner.

Something about this situation doesn't sit well.

Rah rah we killed three pirates with three shots.

Please excuse my silence.

Agree with Dave. If we're going to unduly fault Carter for the inability of helicopters to fly through sandstorms, and to unduly compare Obama to Carter, then we must, in keeping with the f-ed up syllogism created by the Carter/Obama bashers, unduly credit Obama for personally capping Somali pirates.

As a related note, just finished reading Guests of the Ayatollah a few weeks ago and thought it was a good read. Also, I once took a grad school class w/a former Carter aide who is still pissed about this.

I see Ezra is paying his dues to the zionist clique by bashing Carter once again.
The zionists will never forgive Carter for "losing" the Sinai.

reading this post makes it easier to see how Ezra could have signed off on the Iraq war years ago...disappointing

Surely Ezra was being facetious. Yes?

...right?

I think Ezra is having a go. No need to get too worked up about things.

Navy SEALS versus Somali pirats? Was there really a chance?

Umm... some SEAL, Ranger, and Delta Force supertroopers took some licks from Mogadishu street militia in 1993. (And yes, I know they inflicted much more than they took.)

All subsequent posturing aside, 'Blackhawk Down' happened mostly because the field commanders underestimated the locals' ability to adapt. They dropped their elite force into a big city and hustled it out exactly the same way four times, and it worked fine four times. Not the fifth.

Contempt for the opponent is never a good idea.

I'm no Jimmy Carter fan but the man was 1) a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, 2) served with distinction in the U.S. Navy, and 3) ordered the use of force in the ill-fated DESERT ONE operation to rescue the Iran hostages. So, you're right: Obama is no Jimmy Carter.

Can we finally agree that whatever Barack Obama is, he's not Jimmy Carter

Yeah, Carter actually accompished things.

Umm... some SEAL, Ranger, and Delta Force supertroopers took some licks from Mogadishu street militia in 1993. (And yes, I know they inflicted much more than they took.)

Fighting pirates on the high seas is only about a thousand times easier than fighting off a city the size of 1 million people in dark corners and alleyways.

A team of 3 snipers on a ship at sea can take out pirates a good 3000 yards before they even make contact with the ship. We can see them coming from literally a mile away. In Mog you're lucky if you can see them coming at you 20 feet away.

http://www.redstate.com/jeff_emanuel/2009/04/14/of-ezra-klein-and-other-precocious-children-as-well-as-nonsequiturs-and-the-pizza-i-had-this-weekend/

"Yesterday a child named Ezra Klein, who apparently writes for an online magazine called the American Prospect..."

Ah, yes, the utterly insignificant American Prospect with its tens of thousands of paid subscribers and hundreds of thousands of online readers, where writers are actually paid money to blog.

Say, when does the next redstate.com donation beg-a-thon start?

I read that RedState entry as well. The author referenced evolution uncritically, which was interesting. Wonder how many of his readers cringed? But the juvenile nature of the attacks in the post was just really funny. And of course the attacks were basically anti-education.