Reelected

As the President said, justice has been done. Not that it'll ever bring back those lost to families, friends and our society on September 11, 2001, but now, just four months shy of a decade, the man responsible for the most deadly and destructive attack on our nation is shot dead through the head. It's a huge, overdue victory for the United States of America, for our security, and for peace in the world. It's a monster victory for U.S. military special forces, for U.S. counter-terrorism professionals, and for all of our allies in Pakistan and elsewhere that helped us take out Osama Bin Laden, head of the Al Qaeda terrorism network.

It's also, of course, a very good night for our President, Barack Hussein Obama and his hand-picked national security team:

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Raw politics:

• The President's approval ratings will go through the roof and, after it eventually starts down again, will never be as high during his term. Barring disaster, they should last strong enough through the 2012 election. Imagine how small all the others look now. (Watch for which GOP candidates congratulate President Obama by name in their statements - good job, Gov. Pawlenty - and which don't have the character to do so.) NBC even preempted Donald Trump firing maybe LaToya Jackson the last 15 minutes of Celebrity Apprentice. So much for that candidacy.
  

• America always wants a sheriff as President, from General George Washington to Hollywood cowboy Ronald Reagan. With a more cerebral warrior it can take longer for the public to realize when a guy's for real, i.e. Abraham Lincoln. Obama is now officially America's sheriff, cleaning up the streets.

• Obama has always been underestimated, starting with him Democratic rivals for the nomination, then by the GOP and all the pundits (always), and then by the opponents of Health Care Reform. As I've said the past, our enemies would learn about underestimating Obama as well, and it would go even worst for them that it had for the others. As of tonight, Obama's steel is now no longer an issue. Will Mitch Daniels reconsider running?

• As Andrew Sullivan points out:

• 12.08 am Can I say how deeply moving it is that a man named Barack Hussein Obama gave the order for the operation that killed Osama bin Laden?
  
  The pre-eminent symbol of our the multicultural, multiracial society of the future defeated the pre-eminent symbol of the darkest, bleakest throwback to medieval religious fanaticism. Im not ashamed to use the following language: Good defeated evil. And hope rekindles again.

• Huge celebrations right now outside The White House and at Ground Zero that are going to go on all night, V-J date 2011 for young American adults
  

• With this news, Qaddafi has to be reconsidering his options in Libya, especially after reportedly losing his second-youngest son and several grandchildren in a bombing last night.

• Also, per Sullivan:

• When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. And it happens we're in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed, it's-it's bad business to let the killer get away with it, bad all around, bad for every detective everywhere.

  - Humphrey Bogart, as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon.

• This is a huge victory for the law-enforcement theory of counter-terrorism, rather than the massive violence approach. The Obama scalpel of intelligence and cooperation vs. the big-budget Bush blunderbuss of unilateral war.
  
  In 8 years, Bush couldn't get Osama. In less than 2 1/2, Obama brings his head on a stick.
  
  And the guy Bush did destroy a country to get didn't even attack us.

• What a great movie this is going to make -- all the secrecy, practicing and preparation, one helicopter down with mechanical failure, then a 45 minutes fire fight operation ending with Navy SEALS taking bin Laden's body as a souvenir. Paul Greengrass directing?

• Huge validation for Obama's decision to escalate in Afghanistan, where the operation must have been launched from. I always said that the action in Afghanistan was all about what we needed to do in Pakistan. This should help Obama on the Left.
  

• This is the type of victory that lets America know it is not impotent, that it can do great things, and you may see a corresponding lift in the economy. People spend when they celebrate.

• We picked the right guy to lead the country at the right time. Good job, America.

• The 66th anniversary to the day of the announcement of Adolf Hitler's death. The 8th to the day of Bush's premature Mission Accomplished speech. Nice.
  

• There were no leaks -- the President's announcement surprised everybody. Wow.
  

• Fuck off, birthers.
  

Since we all pay taxes for operations like this, contribute to the national character with our own, and did vote the first black guy into office against all odds back in 2008, this is certainly a victory for all Americans. So congratulations, America. There will always be tough days ahead, whether another attack, or another drop down the environmental disaster ledge, or a family losing a child in the military, or persistent unemployment.

But for the moment, for tonight, we're finally winners again.