April 30, 2012

"The Five Stages Of GOP Reaction To Osama Bin Laden’s Death — And What’s Next."

The top post at Talking Points Memo, which I visited after I noticed it on my Blogroll and thought hey, I haven't gone there in a long time and then I wonder why I never go there anymore and then oh, I see.

ADDED: ... and then I'm going to blog about this and then hey, I need 5 stages.

67 comments:

harrogate said...

Which of these stages didn't happen, again?

Andy said...

It's nice to revist a little of the unhinged stupid/angry/crazy that was the Bachmann, Perry, and Santorum campaigns. It's too bad we don't have them to kick around any more. It takes a real piece of work to try to find a way to make the Osama killing not a positive for Obama, but those folks sure gave it the vaguely pathetic effort that we expect of them.

garage mahal said...

Even Ralph Nader Would Have Done It!

LOL

It can all be pretty much summed up with "hey, that's not FAIR!"

Tim said...

Those people at Talking Points Memo are just hoping to gin up some controversy over the easiest decision the Obama Administration ever had to make.

As if anyone thinks it really had a choice.

President Mom Jeans who Throws Like a Girl would never had lived it down once word got out (and you can bet your last dollar it would have) that he failed to authorize the assassination of bin Laden.

Bob Ellison said...

[Internal dialogue]: I really shouldn't comment here, because this item is obviously going to attract lefty high-fives. D'oh! There are three already! Well, I'll just sit quiet.[/Internal dialogue]

D'oh!

traditionalguy said...

Obama is trying to contrast his go for the jugular fly catching instincts with the white shirt and tie wearing Mormon boy on a bicycle look of that goody, goody son of Wealth named Romney.

He has found the one thing that the American lower middle class does value in a man: the hunter's instincts that can track down and kill something. Ergo:Obama is running to the right of Romney.

Joe Schmoe said...

Republicans, and conservative libertarians like myself, applauded the death of bin Laden without reserve. Can't speak for the candidates, as I didn't really care what they said.

Now imagine the hue, cry, teeth-gnashing, and garment-rending that would have occurred if W. had gotten bin Laden in 2003 and even mentioned in passing during his re-election campaign. Dumbocrats would've repudiated it as the poorest of W.'s poor form. So the fact that the GOP candidates are subjecting Barry to a mild, mild version of the same is inconsequential. Go suck on it. And Talking Points Memo is a lefty hack digi-rag. I'm sorry I clicked through. I resisted the link to hattie but got suckered on this one. Behold the power of the Althouse link.

cubanbob said...

Wow you really to have to awe inspiringly stupid to be Andy R. Really, Bin Laden was cornered and handed to Obama on a silver plate and this is big achiement? Other than Bill Clinton what president wouldn't have issued the order? Next the left would trumpet this as the equivalent of Truman dropping the bomb on, not that Truman lost much sleep over that. If this is all TPM and the Obama butt kissers have, game over.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Obama has made a big mistake trotting this issue out in April instead of September. This is the only action of his administration which can get any traction outside the far-left base. I keep asking-- what else can he run on? Does he seriously think one issue will carry him to victory?

jimspice said...

"I don`t think that much about bin Laden, he`s not really on my mind anymore."

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that post is totally inaccurate!!

Now watch as all five reactions are reenacted on this very comment thread. Eight comments and we've already covered two of them.

wyo sis said...

You could have (and maybe someone did) made the same 5 points about the left's reaction to George Bush's handling of the 9/11 crisis.
It's politics. It doesn't take long for talking points to show up. In fact, it doesn't even have to be talking points per se. People automatically begin to spin any event into a political bonus for their side. We all know this and are prepared to debate any issue at any time. Demonizing the other side is predictable. So what? Should one side not do it just to give the other side a "fair" chance. This is schoolyard stuff. We've all been doing it since kindergarten.

Matt Sablan said...

"I don`t think that much about bin Laden, he`s not really on my mind anymore."

-- Not on his mind, except you know, training and equipping the squad that would do the deed and pursuing information required to locate him. But it's OK, you don't fully understand what happened.

sane_voter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sane_voter said...

Agreed that if Bush had been continuously dancing on Osama's grave (or ocean or wherever his remains are) like Obama has been, the lefties would be apoplectic.

Also, the commenters at Althouse leave TPM's in the dust.

garage mahal said...

Bin Laden was cornered and handed to Obama on a silver plate and this is big achiement?

Bush killed the wrong guy. Obama cleaned up his mess and killed the right guy. #campaignslogans

Matt Sablan said...

Obama didn't clean up his mess, he crossed the finish line after Bush had cleared the field and handed him the baton.

Joe Schmoe said...

jimspice, you don't seem very aware of the concept of counterintelligence. And you seem to easily embrace the literal explanation of a quote from a supposed serial liar.

CWJ said...

Read the link. Pretty low on the outrageous outrage scale on both sides of the aisle. I do agree with the author that the best republican strategy is to just let this one slide as much as possible.

Joe said...

I always thought the obsession with bin Laden and al Qaeda was kind of dumb and gave both far more legitimacy than they deserved.

The lasting damage both caused wasn't 9/11, but the imposition of TSA and a tangible reduction in freedom. You could say that bin Laden and al Qaeda won one battle, lost the rest, but still won the war.

Joe Schmoe said...

I'm not going to bash Obama for getting bin Laden. That was a huge boon to the world; good for Barry.

SGT Ted said...

What is laughable is Democrats posing as foreign policy "hawks". HAHAHHA. What a fucking JOKE!

Especially when the intel that led to Bin Laden was obtained using the Water Board interrogations during the Bush Administration. McCain would have made the same decision.

We already know Bill Clinton didn't make that decision, which led to 9/11 in the first place. But I am sure we aren't suppose to talk about that inconvenient fact.

X said...

It was a gutsy call that went against every fiber of Obama's being. Well done sir.

Ipso Fatso said...

What I wonder is where does TPM get its money to operate? I have a hard time believing that they make it on ads alone. They are always advertising to fill new positions, adding staff, etc,. They are, for all intents and purposes, a house organ of the democrat party and seem to have a pipeline to every wretch that toils for a left wing-(D) congressman or senator or works deep in the bowels of some federal agency.
I had hopes that when Josh Marshall started this site he would act as an honest broker, meaning that while he leaned left, he would try to give an honest account of both sides and hold them both accountable in the interest of what was the best for the country. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is nothing more than a partisan hack. It smells like Soros but I have no proof. Hopefully some day his funding sources will come out and his credibility shot to hell where it belongs.

cubanbob said...

garage you never miss an oportunity to demonstrate being the hack that you are. Bush killed the right guys and handed Obama the tools to kill Bin Laden when he literally was handed to him on a silver platter. wow i' m impressed that zero in three and a half years did one thing right. a broken clock is right twice a day and zero hasn't even reached that level of accuracy. like i said before, if this all the left has to crow about, game over.

Alex said...

Obama is the most successful at running a perpetual campaign.

Alex said...

Slate complains about Republicans politicizing war

Bob Bruno
You know what? F--k every Republican alive today. The rest of us are sick of their stupid BS and their constant, butthurt whining. F--k them all in the ear and f--k them again in the other ear. Stupid crybabies.
Backwards.Now, more than ever. and HartThorn like this.
15 Minutes Ago from slate.com · Reply

Backwards.Now, more than ever.
Every single one of them? Ewe.
OK Bob, you start.
I'll spell ya when we get to Sarah Palin.
5 Minutes Ago from slate.com · Reply

Joel
I would start with Palin.


Wow, just wow.

garage mahal said...

Bush killed the right guys and handed Obama the tools to kill Bin Laden when he literally was handed to him on a silver platter.

Apparently Obama was better with Bush's tools than Bush was. It's funny watching how easily the right will rise and take obvious bait.

Brian Brown said...

garage mahal said...
Bin Laden was cornered and handed to Obama on a silver plate and this is big achiement?

Bush killed the wrong guy. Obama cleaned up his mess and killed the right guy.


I love watching you chest thumping wussies (who have never been in the military) cheer the murder of someone with intelligence gathered by water boarding.

Your stupidity knows no limits.

Wince said...

The Five Stages Of GOP Reaction To Osama Bin Laden’s Death — And What’s Next.

In actuality, wasn't the GOP reacting to the attempt to immediately coronate Obama to a second term, not the actual death of Bin Laden?

You know, like TPM is still trying to do with this piece.

Brian Brown said...

Andy R. said...
It takes a real piece of work to try to find a way to make the Osama killing not a positive for Obama


Actually it doesn't, bozo.

See, for actual adults, having the President constantly brag about being dragged off the golf course to "approve" a mission he knew little about is off-putting.

Of coruse Obama could go on TV and point out that he'll never agree letting you homo's to marry is a good idea and you'd still rush to the voting booth to vote for him.

So nobody here is pretending you have a shred of credibility.

roesch/voltaire said...

Yep Bin Laden was corned and had been so for years, he had been fingered durning the Bush years, but it took Obama to make the final call and these five stages of Republican nonsense followed.The difficult reality, as Peter L. Bergen points out, is that OBama has become the Warrior in Chief, upsetting both the right and the left.

edutcher said...

Hah!

Assuming it wasn't all Panetta's doing, as some accounts suggest, for Zero to act as if he did more than sign off on a proposal is a laugh.

The issue is, if Dubya hadn't started the wheels in motion when he was POTUS, would Barry have done so?

Do the math.

Andy R. said...

It's nice to revist a little of the unhinged stupid/angry/crazy that was the Bachmann, Perry, and Santorum campaigns. It's too bad we don't have them to kick around any more. It takes a real piece of work to try to find a way to make the Osama killing not a positive for Obama, but those folks sure gave it the vaguely pathetic effort that we expect of them.

I don't recall any of them saying anything of the kind, but our own little Dan Savage is suffering the effects of all those nightsticks to the head he took when he was Occupying Hotlanta.

garage mahal said...

Bin Laden was cornered and handed to Obama on a silver plate and this is big achiement?

Bush killed the wrong guy. Obama cleaned up his mess and killed the right guy.


No, the right guy is Zawahiri.

You go for the brains, not the rich wannabe.

PS Considering all Zero has done to sabotage the War on Terror, both as a Senator and as POTUS, the idea of him trying to grab any credit is an insult to the men and women who do all the heavy lifting.

garage mahal said...

I love watching you chest thumping wussies

No you don't, it irritates you greatly. Face it, Obama is just much smarter than Bush, and by proxy, you. After all, he killed bin Laden, and Bush didn't/couldn't.

Matt Sablan said...

"Apparently Obama was better with Bush's tools than Bush was."

-- No, he was just in the right place at the right time. Also, the Democrats have stopped complaining and leaking to the media, so it has gotten easier to use drones and keep Gitmo open. If they had worked with Bush as much, who knows what successes he'd have had. If they hadn't hollowed out the military so he had to start from practically scratch, where would he have gotten.

garage mahal said...

I guess conservatives hate Obama more than they love their country. Tsk tsk. Sad, really.

Christopher in MA said...

Obama is much smarter than Bush...

How is he smarter, garage? Did he actually go out and unearth the intelligence that located Bin Laden? Did he brief the team that made the kill? Or did he just check off the box on the paper presented to him?

After all, he killed Bin Laden and Bush didn't / couldn't.

Outside of the fact that President Golfy McGutsy didn't do anything more than give the word, it is amusing watching the party of "General Betrayus" suddenly embrace the military.

I'm glad Bin Laden's dead. But the idea that King Putt is now a "Warrior in Chief" is the biggest joke outside of your posts.

bagoh20 said...

It's instructive that Democrats think this is the greatest thing Obama has done.

It like campaigning on the fact that he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
~

"I wished him into the cornfield."

"It's a good thing you done that Barack, it's a real good thing you
done that.”

"...it's good you're making it snow. A real good thing. And tomorrow....tomorrow's gonna be a... real good day!"

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it's kind of like a Presidential Unit Citation in reverse, isn't it?

garage mahal said...

How is he smarter, garage?

He found and killed bin Laden, and Bush didn't?

I admit this is Bitch Slap Politics 101, and you don't like getting Bitch Slapped. The key is not letting on that it bothers you.

Scott said...

I'm really happy that bourgeois progressives like gm think that executing OBL in his bed is going to translate into votes for Obama.

Please keep thinking that. Obama's chest-thumping (like some sort of dime store Putin) may play in other countries, but here in America it's a turn-off.

We need Obama to keep doing stupid shit so that he can be more unelectable. This is a HUGE gift to the Republicans. Thank you, Mr. President.

Brian Brown said...

No you don't, it irritates you greatly.

No chickenhawk, it is called derision. Look it up.

Anyway, I do enjoy the fact you and your stupid ilk think this is some sort of winning message as if the 8 years you spent shrieking about "politicizing 9-11" and "Bush is a war criminal" and "not my President" never happened.

Face it, Obama is just much smarter than Bush, and by proxy, you

Well, unlike Obama, I know there aren't 57 states and an asthma inhaler isn't a 'breathalyzer'

Among other things.

After all, he killed Bin Laden

He did? He was on the mission?

Wow, you really do learn something new every day!

garage mahal said...

This is a HUGE gift to the Republicans. Thank you, Mr. President.

See Christopher, like this!

Republicans whining about killing the most hated terrorist in the world is GOOD news for Republicans!

Brian Brown said...

He found and killed bin Laden,

Hysterical.

Obama found him now!

Brian Brown said...

garage mahal said...

Republicans whining about killing the most hated terrorist in the world


Note that your ability to understand the dialog is at the epic fail level.

We're all shocked.

Scott said...

I love the smell of flop sweat along with the incoherent babble coming from the garage. :)

bagoh20 said...

Well, I for one will not vote for him just because he has a mantle full of participation awards.

I'll vote "Present".

bagoh20 said...

Why is it necessary to repeatedly tell us that Obama is smart?

"My Mom thinks I'm cool."

...and I like the way her jeans fit my bum.

Christopher in MA said...

He found and killed Bin Laden and Bush didn't.

By that "logic," garage, Harry Truman was smarter than FDR, because he ended the war and Roosevelt didn't.

The only one getting bitch slapped here is you. Keep going and you'll end up in Hat territory.

Chip S. said...

Hell, Winston Churchill killed fuckin' Hitler--at least, in the same sense that Obama killed Osama--and then promptly got booted out of office.

Excellent example to follow now.

Bruce Hayden said...

YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN TO SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING: Huffington: Obama's bin Laden ad 'despicable'.

I think that Reynolds is correct here, that if Ariana Huffington is going to criticize the Obama ad that highlights the killing of OBL, and then suggests that Romney might not have ordered it, then the President is in trouble.

garage mahal said...

Obama found him now!

And Bush didn't/couldn't/wouldn't!

Doesn't sound like Romney has the stomach or the stones do it either. Best to let the grownups take care of things from here on out.

yashu said...

Bruce Hayden, I was just about to link that.

Kinda messes with the narrative. Is Arianna a conservative now (or, again)?

Kudos to Arianna for that surprising bit of un-partisan honesty.

Rusty said...

Obama is just much smarter than Bush,




Comedy gold. All 57 states worth.

Bruce Hayden said...

From JOM yesterday: Too Cheap A Shot. Contrast:

And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.

Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.


With:

The success of yesterday's mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq. The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator's footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate 'em.

I highlighted the use of the use of first person pronouns, and leave it to the reader to guess which recent President said what. And, yes, which one was acting like a leader, and which one had the respect of the military following him.

Rusty said...

garage mahal said...
Obama found him now!

And Bush didn't/couldn't/wouldn't!

Doesn't sound like Romney has the stomach or the stones do it either. Best to let the grownups take care of things from here on out.



You can stop digging now.

Matt Sablan said...

Romney actually said he would do it, just not advertise. I think the term that was recently used was "spike the football." Remember when it was unseemly to be seen as too happy about getting Osama?

Christopher in MA said...

You can stop digging now.

You must not know garage. He's from the Bluto Blutarsky school of beclownment.

garage mahal said...

Remember when it was unseemly to be seen as too happy about getting Osama?

Nope.

Chip S. said...

Let me help you out.

Original Mike said...

Killing bin Laden was a good thing.

Bragging about it? Not so much.

dbp said...

"By that "logic," garage, Harry Truman was smarter than FDR, because he ended the war and Roosevelt didn't."

Not only that. Truman also invented the atomic bomb which ended the war.

raf said...

Hey, it worked for Col Johnson!

“Rampsey, Dampsey, Rumpsey, Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh.”

Balfegor said...

Re: Bruce Hayden:

YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN TO SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING: Huffington: Obama's bin Laden ad 'despicable'.

I could agree that claim the President is trying to make is a real stretch -- almost laughably implausible -- but despicable? What's so despicable about it?

I think what Obama building on is the criticism of his juvenile chest-beating about how he was going to violate Pakistan's sovereignty. But the criticism wasn't entirely about violating Pakistani sovereignty (it was public knowledge by mid 2008 that Bush II had been authorising raids into Pakistani territory, so it wasn't like Republicans actually had a big problem with conducting cross-border raids into Pakistan as such). It was about highlighting that fact, and needlessly antagonising Pakistani public opinion, thereby weakening those (already weak) powers withing Pakistan that might be inclined to cooperate with the US.

I think it's almost incredible to suppose a Republican president (well, other than a President Ron Paul, I guess) wouldn't have authorised the raid if they had good intelligence.

Anyhow, I don't see Obama's claim as despicable, just highly implausible. And in fact, I suspect the average American would find it implausible -- sort of in the same way that when Obama accused McCain of being unpatriotic/unamerican (with respect to outsourcing, etc.), it had no effect whatsoever, since it was obviously, laughably untrue. This is not quite as laughably untrue, but it's close. And that makes it difficult for me to see the claim as "despicable."

CWJ said...

Bruce Hayden@12:25

The contrast is as stark as it is personally revealing.

Leland said...

The only thing gutsy about the call was that it had the potential to alienate Obama's base. The same base that voted for him to close Gitmo, to end the war immediately, and lambasted Cheney for suggesting Obama be captured dead or alive. For those of us not in Obama's base, the gutsy thing was the Navy SEALs and US Army Nightstalkers, who put their actual skin in the game and their lifes on the line.

You want to know what call I wish Obama had made? The smart call, the call in which after putting others lives on the line to raid Osama's lair; you wait a week or a month to exploit the intelligence captured at the site. The call that allows you to get to those who were close to Osama but not at the lair at the time of the raid. The call that required you to not run out and spike the football for short term political advantage, but hold off for the long term advantage of your country.

Phil 314 said...

I applaud BO's getting OBL. But it its odd all this crowing since he's essentially continued Bush's policy in A-Stan and Iraq, not to mention new military intervention in Libya (and all those drones attacks).

Doesn't seem very Progressive!