Shameless Politicizing
The Republicans are crying over the Obama campaign politicizing the death of Bin Laden. Let’s talk about shameless politicizing, shall we?
These are videos from the 2004 Presidential Campaign courtesy of The Maddow Blog and Hullabaloo.
“Waaahhh….Obama is trying to win!” Given the ridiculousness of the press, it makes perfect sense for the GOP to try and spin that as a bad thing. I suspect we’ll see at least a few, “Obama Demeaning the Office of the Presidency by Trying to Win” type stories.
Maybe they’d rather he be reading “My Pet Goat” as the world crumbles around us.
What is worse about the comparison of the two events is that the capture and removal is a genuine accomplishment. Even though there are people who think that he should not have been assassinated, but have to face a court of law. In 2004, BushCo spun away from the fact that they had not captured Bin Laden and in fact had lost him in Tora Bora. Still, the GOP invocation of 9/11 wasn’t about any accomplishment, it was about stirring up fear.
What’s interesting is that now Romney has to make sure he doesn’t look weak on national security by asserting that he would have given the order to take about Bin Laden. Now the Democrats can ask the question of the Repulbicans “Who do you want answering the phone at 3 AM?”
One of the reasons that I was not an Obama supporter is that I wanted strength in the national security and foreign policy arena (which are the primary duties of the President). I have to admit BO stepped up in both areas and is not afraid to make those hard decisions. He deserves kudos for that, but probably won’t get them.
@D “…Romney has to make sure he doesn’t look weak on national security by asserting that he would have given the order to take about Bin Laden.”
But Romney is already on record for insisting that we should not be making incursions into Pakistan. This was a common Obama criticize theme until Obama actually got bin Laden. Now it’s just “Never mind… Yea.. I wouldda done that too.”
Just roll the tape.
A TPM commenter pointed out that Romney didn’t want to help Detroit until it worked and didn’t want to take out Bin Laden until that worked.
If we had a Second-guesser in Chief, Romney would be perfect for the job.
The trouble is that big money can help make many of Romney’s lies believable.
The whole idea of swiftboating is to attack the strength of the opponent and turn it into a weakness. That’s what we’re seeing the beginnings of.
Step 1 is to mute the Obama supporters.
Yeah, but Obama said he didn’t need to “spike the football” over Osama.
I guess he figures he has the need now.
All of us would have done exactly the same – show class and humility during the moment and then name drop for all it’s worth later on. Most of us have done that in our professional lives. Heck I know I have. Accept praise with humility and the remind you later, just when you start saying “What have you done for me lately”
Oh, the Rethugs complain that the President is making political hay out of making a tough military call, which W couldn’t and Mittens won’t. The President needs to add that nobody needed to be tortured to complete the mission.
At the time, Obama didn’t need to hold up a sign on an aircraft carrier because when you actually accomplish the mission, you don’t need no sign!
And again, I didn’t vote for the guy (of course I didn’t vote for Bush either).
It is hard to describe what Obama is doing as “spiking the ball” anyway. Reminding people that he achieved something lots of Americans wanted is hardly an end zone celebration.
Now if Obama was telling people that he actually smoked the GOP on this — *that* would count as end zone celebration.
“The President needs to add that nobody needed to be tortured to complete the mission.”
Yeah, we don’t capture people and send them to Gitmo anymore. There is too much liability attached to it. Obama just has them killed now…… much more humane you see…… and effective.
Wow fightingbluehen you sure do have a serious case of avian flu. Good luck with that!
FBH–
Are you really that simple-minded, or are you just trying to post what you thought would be a zinger?
That shit might fly on the right wing blogs, but the people who visit/contribute to this blog actually THINK for themselves. You’ll have to try a little harder in the future.
Have a nice day.
For sure anon40. I never would have noticed Obama’s preference for drone attacks without someone thinking for me. Thanks, and I’ll take your advice and try harder in the future.
It is perfectly fine for obama to tout this as one of his accomplishments.
But what he has to realize when he starts something like this, is that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Let me predict the future for you guys. The real gop response that is going to get all of you guys saying the gop response is unfair, but here it is, and remember, obama started this. First of all, it is to soon for the real gop response, but as we get within 2 or 3 months of the election, this is what is going to happen. There is plenty of information already out there from multiple sources explaining that obama pretty much had to be coersed into making the decision to go ahead with the attack. His speech had even been written for him, and he really was not fully in the loop on this thing. So when we get closer to the election, and the truth starts coming out, remember, obama himself started this
When Republicans say the President is “politicizing” something substitute “beating us up and we don’t have anything much to say to stop it.” It fits.
I love it when Rustydills predicts the future.
Also his comment smacks of nutty conspiracy theories.
By far the least difficult task in the multi-year build-up to and execution of the raid on the Bin Laden compound was giving the final green light to ‘go in’. But true to his serial narcissism, however unfounded, Obama shamelessly usurps most of the credit for himself.
QP, no, Obama doesn’t. That’s your twister interpretation of what’s happening.
QP wouldn’t have had even this to say if it weren’t for Fox News. Who apparently would be much happier if this Administration hadn’t been so focused on taking out AQ leadership.
Who wrote, filmed and approved the ad? Fox News? Or Obama and his campaign?
Who was upset by it? Sheep like you (never)? Or the SEALs themselves?
Obama’s people should also start playing up the daring rescue of the ships Captain from those pirates. Another daring call by our commander in Chief The captain is safe and GM is alive and well and oh yes OBL is dead the killer of 3,000 Americans. And Bush and Cheney along with Mittens and McCain, Fox Noise are green with envy
If Romney was president, the planning would not have even happened. You can’t plan a raid in Pakistan when your commander in chief has already taken it off the table. So Obama deserves credit for having the guts to declare this was possible all the way from the campaign trail. That’s how leadership works. You declare what will happen, and then the experts scramble to figure out how to make that work. Obama did everything a president could do to make it happen, and his 2008 rivals (Romney included) were all on record saying that a Pakistan strike was out of scope. Romney, in particular, is on record finding the idea of hunting down Bin Laden to be not worth the expense, because OBL is only one man. Well, QP? Was it worth the expense?
Oh. And now Obama is shamelessly exploiting the end of the war in Afghanistan by actually going there to sign documents… and even posing for PICTURES with the troops.
Shameless… utterly shameless.
I hear he’s not even charging for the pictures. commie bastard.
“But true to his serial narcissism, however unfounded, Obama shamelessly usurps most of the credit for himself.”
Aircraft carrier, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Ring a bell?
Wow. There’s so much wrong here I don’t even know where to begin.
Let’s start with this qualifier–I voted for Obama, but I’ve been very disappointed with him in many ways.
Having said that, I must give him credit where credit is due. Obama gave the green light to kill Bin Laden. Bush gave up looking for him long before his 2nd term ended.
“Serial unfounded narcissism”? Really? Please cite a few examples…I can’t think of any.
As for “unfounded narcissism”, see George W. Bush.
Dave, i dont really think you want to make that comparison…. in the (almost)10 years following Bush’s “mission whatever” thousands of Americans died in an already “accomplished mission”, tens of thousands of iraqis died. Saddam had NOT YET been found, we’re STILL lookin for those nukes he had pointed at Israel and Texas. What exactly was bush’s “mission”?
Compare that to what has happened in just the past year with the terrorist organization that Bush let off the hook.
If you also remember, the BUsh Spin Team later tried to say that the banner had nothing to do with Iraq. the Aircraft carrier had it up for some other mission…. it was just poor timing and TOTALY the fault of the service members on board the ship….. not Bush’s NEVER Bush’s