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Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder - Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. More

Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal. He previously served as the politics editor, and is now a contributing editor, for The Atlantic, where he curated the influential Politics channel on TheAtlantic.com and contributed to the magazine. He was also a chief political consultant to CBS News. Earlier, at NJ's Hotline, Ambinder was the founding editor of "Hotline On Call," a pathbreaking political news blog. He also worked as a producer and reporter for the ABC News Political Unit and was one of the founders of ABC's "The Note." Born in New York City, raised in Central Florida, Ambinder is a 2001 graduate of Harvard and lives in Washington, D.C.

Obama And The Pirates

By Marc Ambinder
Apr 13 2009, 7:11 AM ET Comment

"An Early Military Victory for Obama," says the Washington Post. "[I] may help to quell criticism leveled at Obama that he came to office as a Democratic antiwar candidate who could prove unwilling or unable to harness military might when necessary. Meanwhile, RedState tastefully reports that "Captive Captain Helps Save Obama."

Perhaps I'm reading this wrong, but I'm fairly certain that the pirate drama and its resolution says absolutely nothing about President Obama. You could make the case that the White House wants to show that Obama is deliberate and cautious when it comes to authorizing military force -- fine -- but this was a hostage rescue mission, the U.S. has specially-trained counterterrorist forces for precisely this sort of thing, and military aciton was almost inevitable. Really, what this weekend's drama was, was a test of the National Command Authority, the NSC's ability to communicate with commanders in the crisis, and some good field training for Navy SEALs.

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Marc Ambinder
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