George W. Bush - the flock of birds that clogged America's engines.

[Writer]

Is it a miracle that we have safely landed in the water, with Obama at the helm?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Interesting metaphor. nt

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. All that miracle stuff.... while it is an oustanding achievement for

the pilot to have saved this from becoming the disaster it could have... and many many kudos to him and crew... it befuddles me how people will call it a miracle from God when it was probably God who made the birds, gave them feathers, and put them in the flightpath of this aircraft.... ya know what I mean.

[ddeclue]

5. There is both good and bad in the world and "miracles" are most often very subtle - not obvious.

and perhaps bad things happen so that there can be a miracle from time to time.

I think there are two movies you need to see - "Grand Canyon" (1991) and "Forrest Gump" (1994).

1) http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CE3D6113DF936A15751C1A967958260

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101969/

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/vvcfeatures.php?id=15410

"Maybe these are miracles. Maybe we don't have any experience with miracles so we're slow to recognize them." - Claire talking to Mack

2) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/

Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floatin' around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it's both, maybe both happening at the same time. - Forrest Gump

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. I'm not sayin' that there aren't miraculous things that occur in this

world, what I am saying is that you can't give a supreme being responsibility for the good stuff that happens.

[ddeclue]

10. And I'm saying you can't be sure of that...

:)

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. Well the constantly moving, book waving, eyebrow twitching

preacherman on tv told me so.

[silverweb]

3. One flaw I see.

The passengers of Flight 1549 were just lucky to have an extraordinarily capable pilot from the luck of the draw (or grace of the Divine) when they needed him most.

Flight America has the extraordinarily capable Pilot Obama because We The People (the passengers) fought for and chose him.

[ddeclue]

4. Except that it wasn't the luck of the draw.

USAir didn't just go out to some random field and pick some random low time pilot to fly for them. They picked Captain Sullenberger from amongst a lot of qualified pilots and invested years in training him and making sure he was qualified.

[silverweb]

8. I meant from among USAir's field of pilots.

Granted, all of their pilots are very well qualified, but Captain Sullenberger has extra experience and credentials that made him the best pilot to save this flight -- just as Obama is the best among all the good candidates we had to lead the United States now.

[ddeclue]

9. Captain Sullenberger was heroic but there's no reason to believe

that other USAir pilots would not have done as well.

Doug D.

[silverweb]

13. We could beat the analogy into the ground, but I won't.

While we could expect that another pilot might have done as well or nearly as well, there is no doubt that Captain Sullenberger does have extra qualifications in terms of his years of experience and his own aviation safety consulting work.

Likewise, if we had elected another one of our Democrats president instead of Barack Obama, we would have every right to expect a good outcome, but many of us think Obama has extra qualities that make him the better choice to pilot the nation at this particular time.

[Jawja]

6. The flock of birds that

crapped on the American People.

[bridgit]

12. Not for the reasons at which you are grasping...

i.e. when it is suggested by others that the contracted world economy we see all about us is Obama's fault; it is pointed out in very short order by no-less than us; that Obama has not been sworn in yet, even therefore...Obama was not/is not as yet at 'the stick' not to mention 'the helm'