Obama gets his man and claims his legacy

President Barack Obama said on taking office he told the CIA that the death or capture of Osama Bin Laden was to be the agency’s number one priority.

The death of the al-Qaeda terror chief will make the President, who was being written off as a one-term wonder, an almost unbeatable force when he comes up for re-election next year.

Obama was elected in 2008 on an agenda of hope, but found himself governing in the deepest economic recession the US has seen in a generation.

A week ago the under-pressure Democrat President was facing barely disguised racist demands to produce a certificate proving his American birthright.

He duly did so but emphasised he had more important matters to consider. No one will be asking Barack Obama to show his US birth certificate ever again.

The spontaneous patriotic reaction to the death of bin Laden and Obama’s political craftsmanship in weaving his imprint onto the story have propelled the President into another league.

The raid on Bin Laden took 40 men and lasted 40 minutes, but will set the political weather for years to come.

Obama was also elected to wrap up the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which, for many Americans, were directly linked to the terror that was visited on sacred US soil in New York and Washington ten years ago.

Terrorist attacks will continue, but the death of the perpetrator of 9/11 will bring to a close a long decade pockmarked with the caskets of US service personnel being flown home from far afield.

The troops can start coming home, and that means British troops too.

George W Bush said bin Laden was wanted dead or alive. Yesterday it was another president that changed the talk into action. America has got it’s man, and Obama has a staked a claim to a first term legacy.