I’ve long argued that President Obama should have explained that the Bergdahl situation was very complicated and that the decision to get Bergdahl was difficult because it came at such a tremendously high cost. Perhaps he could have reminded Americans about how ugly war is and how there were a lot of questions to sort through once Bergdahl made it safely home. And I still think that would have gone much better than it did. Of course, anything would have gone better than it did.

But the Rose Garden announcement of the Bergdahl swap did get people to ease up a bit on the Veterans Affairs scandal. The focus on Bergdahl meant that there wasn’t as much focus on high-level Taliban members who were released (and living in luxury in Qatar right now, it seems, awaiting release from supervision so they can return to the fight). And the Bergdahl story never became a dangerous story about Obama trying to close Guantanamo Bay.

So the rollout makes sense.