FOD 2012.09.10

Joe Biden is running around telling anyone who will listen that, thanks to obama, "Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive."

Let's take a closer look at that claim. First, the "bin laden is dead" part.

Yes, bin laden is dead. And as president, obama certainly deserves some credit for that, even if it appears that the raid was carried out in spite of his indecision.

A new book by investigative reporter Richard Miniter alleges that President Obama canceled the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound three times before finally giving the go ahead for the mission.

Each time, the president canceled on the advice of his trusted aide Valerie Jarrett.

Say what? Jarrett is a "Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, and civic leader." How does that qualify her to advise the President of the United States on national security issues?

In "Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him," Richard Miniter writes that Obama canceled the "kill" mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March. Obama's close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each time, according to the book.

Obama administration officials also said after the raid that the president had delayed giving the order to kill the arch-terrorist the day before the operation was carried out, in what turned out to be his fourth moment of indecision. At the time, the White House blamed the delay on unfavorable weather conditions near bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

But when Miniter obtained that day's weather reports from the U.S. Air Force Combat Meteorological Center, he said, they showed ideal conditions for the SEALs to carry out their orders.

And, as we know, the weather conditions in Washington D.C. were also ideal for golf that day.

Furthermore, a memo written by Leon Panetta, then-director of the Central Intelligence Agency and now-Secretary of Defense, reveals that "operational decision-making and control" was really in the hands of William McRaven, a three-star admiral and former Navy SEAL.

"The timing, operational decision-making and control are in Adm. McRaven's hands," the memo says. "The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the president. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the president for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and, if he is not there, to get out."

In other words, it was McRaven's call to pull the trigger or not on the raid.

The Panetta memo, rather than presenting a profile in courage, says "approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the president." This left enough wiggle room to blame the operation planners and controllers if the raid had gone as wrong as President Jimmy Carter's famous failure to rescue American hostages held by Iran. This memo left room for the blame for another "Blackhawk Down" snafu to be blamed on anyone and everyone but President Obama.

Reminds me of Bill Clinton's numerous opportunities to kill or capture bin laden, each of which he passed up (here, here, and here). The only time he made any attempt to get bin laden was in August 1998, when he lobbed a few cruise missiles into Afghanistan and the Sudan in an effort to distract the American public from the then-brewing Monica Lewinsky scandal.

August 20 1998 was also the same day the U.S. military simultaneously launched 75 cruise missiles at four training camps in Afghanistan in an attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden and other high ranking al-Qaeda leaders. It also happened to be the same day Monica Lewinsky testified before the grand jury for a second time against the President. The minister of information of Sudan fittingly condemned Clinton by calling him a "proven liar" with "100 girlfriends."

Finally, there are the security leaks after the bin laden raid that negated the intelligence gathered during the raid and endangered the lives of the SEALS involved in the raid, along with their families. The leaks are so egregious that a group of former special operations and CIA officers has produced a video stating that the obama administration has endangered lives as a result of those leaks.

The group,  Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, released a 22-minute video called “Dishonorable Disclosures” on its website Wednesday, targeting the president and his administration over intelligence leaks.

The video includes interviews with former intelligence officers, who suggest that the White House deliberately leaked details about the raid on Bin Laden’s compound that could accidentally help terrorists identify the Seals involved, as well as other sensitive information...

Source for the above here. More info here.

As for the second part of Biden's bumper-sticker slogan -- "General Motors is alive" -- that may not be true much longer.

President Obama is proud of his bailout of General Motors.  That’s good, because, if he wins a second term, he is probably going to have to bail GM out again.  The company is once again losing market share, and it seems unable to develop products that are truly competitive in the U.S. market.

Right now, the federal government owns 500,000,000 shares of GM, or about 26% of the company.  It would need to get about $53.00/share for these to break even on the bailout, but the stock closed at only $20.21/share on Tuesday.  This left the government holding $10.1 billion worth of stock, and sitting on an unrealized loss of $16.4 billion.

Right now, the government’s GM stock is worth about 39% less than it was on November 17, 2010, when the company went public at $33.00/share.  However, during the intervening time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen by almost 20%, so GM shares have lost 49% of their value relative to the Dow.

Three factors are in play here. First, GM is making the vehicles obama wants them to make -- e.g., the Volt -- rather than vehicles Americans want to buy, such as pickups.

Second, GM is doing a poor job designing and manufacturing vehicles.

At this point, it appears that the 2013 Malibu is not only inferior to the 2012 Volkswagen Passat, it’s not even as good as the car it replaces, the 2012 Chevy Malibu.

Finally, the GM bailout took care of obama supporters -- the unions -- at the expense of everyone else.

"In a standard bankruptcy, the court will give priority to lenders and then to bond holders and then to stockholders ... Here, the United Auto Workers got priority not only over other bond holders, they got a higher stake in the new company than other bond holders that had the same unsecured status."

Another point worth mentioning: 2,200 dealerships were closed as a part of the bailout. That's a substantial number of lost jobs and lost fortunes, something obama and Biden are strangely quiet about.

And in a move that is frighteningly reminiscent of the subprime mortgage loan fiasco that led to the recent economic collapse, GM is now making subprime car loans.

GM Financial auto loans to customers with FICO scores below 660 (anything under 660 is generally considered subprime) rose from 87% of total loans in Q4 2010 to 93% in Q1 2012.

"Is GM taking on more risk than is safe given our uncertain economy?" asks Edward Niedermeyer, TheTruthAboutCars.com editor-at-large. "They may be trying to goose short-term sales with subprime lending to boost its stock price, which is tied to the government getting out of its GM investment."

An indecisive president. Intelligence leaks that threaten national security. A failing investment. Favorable treatment of obama supporters. Increasing amounts of risky loans. Every decision being made on the basis of political gain, not on what's best for the country.

And somewhere around half of the people in this country think he deserves a second term!?!

WTF are they eating/drinking/smoking?