In the aftermath of Al Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden's death yesterday, people are now high-fiving and pronouncing the re-election of President Barack Obama as inevitable.
Don't get too overconfident.
It was just a few days ago that Obama went on national television to announce (in effect) that he had been rolled by Republican sort-of-Presidential-candidate/real estate mogul/"reality" TV tough-guy Donald Trump.
So Obama wasted his time (and the nation's) to produce his full certificate of live birth in Hawaii to engage with the nonsensical (and racist) "birther" movement.
However, this much can be said about Barack Obama: he can address the nation at times as if they were a bunch of grown-ups not constantly engorging on trivia. And, in certain matters of national security, he can act decisively--as witnessed by the demise of bin Laden (like Saddam, a villain once allied with and enabled by America).
In terms of what Obama plans to do with the huge temporary bump in popularity, it's anyone's guess.
One thing Obama should do is forcefully declare an end to the post-9/11 era by having Khalid Sheikh Mohammad tried in a civilian court. The carried-over-from-Bush policies of ignoring inconvenient passages in the Constitution "because it's wartime" must stop.
Also, Obama could quit demonizing the "left" and too-often meekly deferring to Wall Street and well-heeled corporate contributors to both parties.
In effect, I'm saying this: if Barack Obama can finally rid the world of a Most Wanted terror figure, then he should find (to use an old political cliche) "the fire in his belly" to combat the kind of domestic financial terrorism (against the everyday working class the Democratic Party used to care about) wielded by the likes of Paul Ryan.
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