Good Week for Obama

I'm not very political, but you have to admit, it's been a good week for him.

1) Released long-form birth certificate. So happy he shut those birther morons up. He's already the president, so there's no point trying to prove he isn't an American. If you aren't convinced, read the article and see the long-awaited birth certificate here.

2) Got to crack jokes about Donald Trump. Major draw of the White House Correspondent's Dinner. While Obama did a decent job, I actually think Seth Meyers got better laughs (but that should be expected since he's a comedian). Here are Obama's remarks:

and here's what Seth had to say:

Possibly my favorite thing was seeing that Trump couldn't take a joke and was ticked everytime they made a joke about him. Meanwhile, Obama was having a grand old time and showed he can take it just as well as he can dish it.

and of course...

3) The Navy SEALs strike on Osama bin Laden. This was exciting news, and it broke just before I was going to bed last night. So I put clothes back on, went down to the White House (a short drive, like 5 mins), and celebrated with several thousand fellow Americans and a whole bunch of media from any- and everywhere.

While I am glad that his reign over al-Qaeda has ended and was happy to cheer for the USA and the locating of this terrible criminal, I regret that bin Laden ended up being killed during the operation. I much would have preferred that he be taken into custody and tried for his crimes, so that justice could have been fulfilled without the shedding of more blood.

It's true that this symbolic victory comes with a myriad of complications going forward, including the threat of retaliatory terrorist attacks. I recognize that. But for the moment, I echo my friend Dan's twitter sentiment (@djneltz), "The result is death. The celebration is the defeat of tyranny, evil and terror."

And as a result of #3,

4) Major bump up in the polls. My friend Justin cited this www.intrade.com prediction, which apparently predicts various markets, and that Obama's chances of winning the 2012 election jumped almost 18% (up to 69%) with the news of Osama bin Laden's death. As of 24 hours later, that prediction is at 62.5%, which is a significant drop, but the Obama camp will definitely be able to list this on his accomplishments when the campaigning begins in earnest.