Bloodless Coup

Stuart Rothenberg - So Naive It's Both Cute and Scary

I mean the guy is a seasoned expert, he's seen this president for 5 years, and of course his time covering politics goes back far before the current president. And yet he writes the following:

Frankly, I was shocked at the question, since the underlying premise was that the president of the United States would respond to the possible execution primarily in the context of domestic political pressures. I guess the people working on the story had visions of the president, Karl Rove and a couple of other White House staffers sitting around talking about what the president had to say to make Pat Robertson, James Dobson or Gary Bauer happy.

The Carpetbagger is almost certainly correct, of course domestic politics had something to do with the administration's prioritization of this action. The president stands by while people are executed all the time. This was clearly an unusual situation - and the fact that this involved someone being executed for converting to Christianty is what made it different. Rothenberg is living in a happier world - but one that doesn't match reality.