By Aberjani: What death of Osama Bin Laden indicates about Barack Obama’s leadership


(Photo of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama by George Burns and Harpo Studios)

Until late Sunday evening on May 1, 2011, the big news in discussions focused on President Barack Obama throughout the weekend was that he and First Lady Michelle Obama were scheduled to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show on May 2. Then TV journalists interrupted regular television broadcasts at approximately 10:45 p.m. with the news that al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden had been killed and President Obama himself came on the air about an hour later to confirm the news and provide details on the end of a quest for justice that has taken nearly a full decade to achieve since September 11, 2001.

Delivering an address that evoked the unhealed “gaping hole” left in the heart of Americans following 9/11 along with the heightened sense of patriotic unity that followed, Obama made his purpose for being on television at such an odd hour clear from the beginning:

“Tonight I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda , and a terrorist who was responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”

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What death of Osama Bin Laden indicates about Barack Obama’s leadership - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

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