The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden

[Selene]

Paul Shanklin, white comedian and impressionist sings the Gene Pitney song as a parody here.

However, numerous analysts have been drawing moral parallels between the classic message movie from John Ford and the killing of Osama:

"Because, as the journalist says in the John Wayne/Jimmy Stewart classic, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: “This is the West sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” In American politics we are all Westerners. We love our legends.

The death of bin Laden may be a symbolic victory, but that’s precisely its power. Obama, despite future failures in other areas, will forever be known as the man who “got” bin Laden. And that is a huge f-ing deal.

Think about it this way: Did Ronald Reagan actually end the cold war?

The correct answer is: It doesn’t matter.

Reagan’s continued popularity rests in large part on his image as the vanquisher of Communism. That became part of the legend and, golly, was it ever printed — over and over.

If you’ve seen the movie, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, (and if you haven’t — spoiler alert!), you’ll remember that Jimmy Stewart’s character is propelled into the U.S. Congress because he is known as the the man who killed the outlaw, Liberty Valance in a shootout. (The outlaw was played by one of our greatest badmen, Lee Marvin).

Except, Stewart didn’t kill the bad guy. It was Stewart’s rival for the affections of Vera Mills, John Wayne, who did the job, secretly shooting Valance from out of sight. Stewart, being Stewart, wants to tell everyone the truth, but Wayne, being Wayne, insists on doing the unselfish thing — leaving the legend alone so that Stewart will be elected to Congress and do great things for the citizenry.

Moral of the story: Legends count. A lot.

In the case of Obama v. Osama, the legend is even more powerful because it happens to be true. For many Americans, Obama proved his decisiveness, perseverance, and patriotism with this single decision.

Even some GOP officials have been gushing over the president’s bold move." here

The NY Times chimed in here. The comments are interesting.

Adam

[Selene]

The Man Who Shot Bin Laden

I'm just old enough to have seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in a theatre when it came out. One of the last of the great John Ford westerns, it starred Jimmy Stewart as a lawyer on the frontier who made his reputation by taking down a notorious outlaw, played by Lee Marvin, in a gunfight. This action propelled him to become a Senator when the territory became a state. Of course, the Jimmy Stewart character knew that the real hero of the gunfight was the character played by John Wayne, who actually killed Liberty Valance from the shadows. Jimmy Stewart missed, but it didn't matter. The legend had become more important than the facts by the time he revealed the truth.

Today Barack Obama is both Jimmy Stewart AND John Wayne. He is both the smart lawyer and the sharpshooter. He is the master poker player and the master chess player. We will not be hearing many of his critics making Jimmy Carter comparisons any more. His odds of getting re-elected just went up about 10 points today.

Read more: http://www.hopeandchange.net/#ixzz1MIPLWOGI

[Brant Gaede]

One thing only matters about Ronald Reagen--he didn't start or be the precipitate cause of a general thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union.

As for Obama, what matters is whether the economy catches up with him before the election.

Eventually, the economy will catch up with most of us, thanks to all of them.

--Brant