The week before last, you would not be out of line for thinking Obama was just another US leader whose actions would never expand to fit the dimensions of his rhetoric.  Maybe you thought he was a paper president who couldn’t figure out how to get out of the partisan headlock those pesky Republicans had put him in.  Or maybe you thought he was a document-forging Kenyan – which would, of course, make you Donald Trump.

So watching the President being presidential this week was probably a head-swiveling spectacle, way better than the press conference Michael Douglas gives near the end of The American President.  All it required was for Obama do the one thing Americans love to see their presidents do…kill.

First, he kills at the White Press Correspondents’ Dinner, mostly by slaying The Donald’s presidential aspirations.  Was there anything more satisfying than watching Trump sitting there, not so much as cracking a smile as the most Powerful Man on Earth mocks his hubris?  It was like watching a bully getting tuned on by your cool older brother (assuming you have one).

poor guy. he still has seth myers to look forward to...

Of course, that was quickly overshadowed by a killing of much greater significance than Trump’s ego.   I know it didn’t happen this way, but I like to imagine Obama as though he’s in a Hollywood movie based on a Tom Clancy novel:  Obama returns from the dinner, heads straight the Situation Room in his tux to get briefed by old burly men in uniforms on a top secret operation.  After exchanging a few Sorkin-esque quips about what a featherweight Trump is, they start speaking in vaguely suggestive military sentences like “Team will be inserted into the AO in 30 mikes”.   Then he orders the best-trained commandos on earth to bump off the single biggest symbol of America’s impotence in the War on Terror.

There was also the dignified, understated announcement of bin Laden’s death (it had to be satisfying to insult Trump on Saturday then cut into The Celebrity Apprentice on Sunday); the entirely justified righteous indignation with the Pakistani government upon revealing that Osama was probably a well-treated guest in their country (with the US picking up the tab); and the rather classy visit to Ground Zero while Bush pouted in Texas, having declined the opportunity to draft off the killing and maybe improve his rep in the blue states.

I’ll leave it to pundits to debate the legality of double-tapping an unarmed man in the head.  Others can parse the impact of Osama’s death, especially following the Arab Spring, when thousands of citizens in the Middle East did with protests what al Qaeda couldn’t do with bombs.  Fox News can speculate all it wants as to how much credit the Bush administration deserves for the success of the operation.  Let the jokers at CNN wring their hands over whether or not Obama can sustain his approval ratings through to the next election.

It could be that changes in health care will be ineffective, that the recession has a tail that may yet sting Americans one more time, or Obama may’ve extended tax cuts for the wealthy that will further cripple the US economy in years to come.   It could be that he hasn’t really closed Gitmo, or that he’s off the chain in Libya, and efforts in Afghanistan could prove futile.

At the moment, none of that matters.  People can snipe all they want, but love or hate him, everybody has to agree that this past week Obama walked taller and prouder than any man on earth.  He was THE Better Man.  Every guy would give his left nut to have the kind of week Obama had, including and especially the Combover That Walks Like A Human.

The same night Obama was stomping Trump at the dinner, I got word that a co-worker was in hospital after surviving a helicopter crash.   I sent him a note wishing him well and saying he had to get better – because the only thing more likely to get him laid than telling ladies he survived a chopper crash was telling them he killed Osama bin Laden.   If the President didn’t score with the First Lady at least once this week, he doesn’t deserve a second term.