If the Desert One rescue had succeeded, would the peanut have been re-elected in 1980?
The Desert One fiasco was a terrible thing, but had it worked, the peanut may well have won re-election.
The nation would have been denied the genius of Ronald Reagan.
The long term impact on America and the world would have been catastrophic.
So the bin Laden deal is a great victory, but it's not without potential danger.