Vanity Fair posted an excerpt from Mark Bowden’s story running in the November issue about the raid on Osama bin Laden. My favorite part:

According to Bowden, Leon Panetta told Obama that he ought to ask himself this question: “What would the average American say if he knew we had the best chance of getting bin Laden since Tora Bora and we didn’t take a shot?”

That’s probably not the best way to make a huge decision as it is purely emotional. But, it’s a pretty convincing line. Read the rest of the excerpt here.

P.S. I know, posting has been terribly slow the past month. It’s midterm time for me so I’m pretty swamped with work – I actually have a midterm in a half hour. Next Tuesday, I’ll be taking part in an eight on eight public debate on foreign policy representing an Obama surrogate. It’s for my class Foreign Policy and the 2012 Campaign taught by former Clinton and Bush adviser Peter Feaver. It’ll be live-streamed online for anyone who wants to see my quivering voice try to defend Obama’s China policies. More on that to come.