When a friend with a long-standing interest in international affairs called at 10 o’clock Sunday night to say CNN was reporting that President Obama would address the nation shortly, I had an adrenalin rush, changed channels and alerted family and close friends, reasoning that it had to be something major. My TV, computer and radio were activated.
In all the years I have followed international politics, I have never known a head of state or government to make a national address at that hour on a weekend. Flicking from channel to channel, it was instructive that the heavyweight newsmen were in place alerted by White House contacts to hasten to their studios. Something big was happening and speculation rife as to the genesis of this landmark development.
Information leaked early that though national security related, it was not about Libya. Just after 10:30 p.m. Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera was ecstatic. Face lit up ear to ear, he said an informant told him the announcement related to the death of Osama bin Laden. On CNN, outstanding news anchor, Wolf Blitzer, said he had an idea but had been asked by the White House to exercise restraint.
At 11:30, Barack Hussein Obama, president and commander-in-chief, accused by Republicans of being soft on Muslims and terrorism, told the world he had ordered a special branch of the armed forces to launch a strike in Pakistan against the world’s most wanted and notorious terrorist. The mission was accomplished to universal relief and instantaneous outbursts of joyous celebrations outside the White House and at Ground Zero in New York City.
Historians may isolate it as the finest hour of his short incumbency and the culmination of a week during which three accomplishments took him to new heights in the public opinion polls. The first, following the worst tornadoes in American history, within 24 hours he flew south to see the devastated areas first hand, comforting the distressed who lost family and property and activating immediate federal assistance.
This contrasted poignantly with the reaction of President George W. Bush after New Orleans was devastated by a hurricane and he was dilatory going into the area and putting federal assistance in place. And who can forget when an aide told him, on a tour to a Florida school, that planes had flown into New York’s Twin Towers, he continued chatting with a four-year-old.
The second was publicly releasing his birth certificate silencing the right-wing “birthers” agitating noisily for two years that their president was not born on American soil. Forced onto the back foot, these never-say-die nabobs, unable to accept a black president and led by billionaire Donald Trump, launched a new campaign of negativity questioning Obama’s academic achievements, claiming he got into Ivy League schools, Columbia and Harvard, through the Affirmative Action Programme, not merit.
In their gadarene rush, pausing neither for breath nor thought, they could not be expected to acknowledge the meritocratic rise which made Obama the outstanding first black editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.
I find the loudmouth, foul-mouthed Trump, who clearly has more money than sense, an abomination. For the first time in my life, an aspirant to high political office dropped the obnoxious verbal f-bomb four times during a Las Vegas speech.
Amazingly, the buffoon’s crude profanities when lambasting Obama and Democrats drew rapturous applause from the partisan crowd which said as much about Trump as about them.
It was difficult trying to escape the impression that driven by bigotry and racism, both speaker and listeners were comfortable with his toxic vulgarities.
Obama dismissed him and the “birthers”, saying he was concentrating on more important matters and took him to the cleaners with superb, sophisticated wit at Saturday’s White House correspondents’ dinner. Trump sat stony-faced in the crowd.
The third accomplishment was last Sunday night’s stellar TV performance and revelation of his central role in the operation which attracted global tributes, except for the perennial naysayers who are railing against the administration for not publicly displaying gruesome photographs of bin Laden’s body and disposing of it in a civilized manner within the 24-hour time frame consistent with his religious tenets.
As one wag put it, the “birthers have been reincarnated as the deathers”.
Though continuing overarching economic depression, rising petrol and commodity prices and stubborn unemployment levels will not help, Americans respect strong, hands-on commanders-in-chief and the bin Laden triumph was a defining moment in Obama’s presidency.
Buttressed by a hugely charismatic personality, powerful intellect and flawless articulation, he looks like an odds-on bet to return to the White House in 2012.
In closing, I congratulate Starcom Network on its superb coverage Sunday night. A broadcasting medium’s response to breaking news is a useful gauge of its competence. Tracking VOB just after the news first broke, Director of News and Current Affairs, David Ellis, was working his TV and computer sources, feeding live reports straight onto the airwaves.
In the studio, Ronnie Clarke played themed soca background music – Warmongers, Nobody Wins A War and One Superpower. Minutes to midnight, he put the icing on the cake, closing with The Lord’s Prayer.
It was local broadcasting at its world class best. Conversely, as the world waited with mounting anxiety for the breaking news from the White House, CBC Channel 8 continued normal programming, shunning the build-up and moving with the alacrity of an arthritic snail to capture the president’s speech.
The contrast was stark between a broadcaster leaping into the i-Pad era and a resolute neanderthal.
