Obama getting Osama was an event of high drama and much will be made of the immediate effect on national pride, national security, Afghanistan policy, relations with Pakistan, and the future of the war on terrorism. There is another more subtle impact that will play out in the future. One to watch carefully is the changing perception of the character of Obama. The GOP had worked hard to paint Obama as a dithering professor who analyzed options to death and could not be decisive on the big issues of the day, though they conceded dismissively he was likable and could make great speeches. They made a point of questioning whether he was an effective leader at every opportunity they could, whether it was taking the initiative in coming up with a plan to reduce the deficit or going after Gadhafi. The Democrats called him the adult in the room above the petty and nasty partisan squabbles of a severely divided country and Congress. GOP appeared to win the definition war until May 1.
Obama may have not landed in the helicopter, risked his life in a shoot out, but he participated in the planning, gave the kill order and the order to proceed and watched the raid unfold in real time.The impact on 2012 will not be one of painting Obama as the nation’s hero; it will be his newly defined stature as a gutsy, effective leader and the chaos it will throw into the GOP’s ability to come up with candidates of comparable talents who will be touting their poorly received deficit reduction plans. Their candidates will have to butt heads with the Democrats’ less draconian and fairer plans for the economy and a public noticing a weak but improving jobs picture. The burden will now be on the GOP to redefine themselves.
