OUR GREAT NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER – AT 7:32 P.M. ET:  And it only took a day.  President Obama, as everyone knows by now, "accepted" the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal as our commander in Afghanistan.

Obama was gracious in his comments about McChrystal.  This was the president's "big firing" thus far.  Perhaps symbolic of this administration, McChrystal was fired, not for something he did, but for something he said...in this case to a reporter. 

There is no word on whether McChrystal will write his memoirs, or whether he already has a literary agent or movie deal.  Given what has happened to the film industry, it's unlikely that many of its "executives" have ever heard of Stan McChrystal or would have any interest in anything he said, unless it appealed to 12-year-olds and could be set to hip-hop "music."

Somewhat odd was Obama's appointment of Dave Petraeus to replace McChrystal.  Petraeus, head of CENTCOM, was already McChrystal's boss.  He will now wear two hats.

Of course, the choice of Petraeus has some obvious roots.  First, he's well-known to the public, and the choice will be popular.  Second, this pretty much eliminates Petraeus as a 2012 presidential candidate, unless there's some dramatic, and unlikely, resignation in protest in Petraeus's future.  Third, the quick appointment eliminates the Washington guessing game.

I've been monitoring the reaction to today's events.  Most pundits agree that the president was well within his rights, legal and moral, to remove McChrystal.  Some former Army officers regretted McChrystal's departure and blamed Obama and his leadership.  But I suspect this episode will blow over quickly.

June 23, 2010