If you listen to Fox News and the GOP candidates you may believe President Obama is one of the weakest presidents ever on matters of national security. They paint a picture of him as some pacifist appeaser who is eroding America's strength.
Of course that imaginary version of the president is exactly why GOP rebuttals issued after the State of the Union are so weak. The version of the president they have stuck in their heads simply doesn't live up to reality.
In reality, the real President Obama ordered another high-risk yet successful SEAL team operation last night just before appearing before the entire nation to deliver the State of the Union.
While walking onto the House floor to deliver the State of the Union Tuesday night, President Obama told Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "great job tonight." The mysterious comment was caught on camera and by the mic pool.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon and White House explained what the presidential congratulations were all about.
"Last night U.S. Special Operations Forces conducted, by order of the President of the United States, a successful mission in Somalia to rescue two individuals taken hostage on October 25, 2011," Panetta said in a statement Wednesday.
Jessica Buchanan, 32, an American aid worker, and her Danish colleague, Poul Thisted, were both rescued. The two employees of a Danish aid group were kidnapped at gunpoint by a suspected Somali criminal gang in the northern part of the country in October.
The president could have announced this during his speech to great effect, however he chose not to.
Maybe he was just trying to show the Republicans some mercy.
