good defense of Obama on OBL deal, at Daily Beast

[Laura PourMeADrink]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/01/obama-s-osama-bin-laden-ad-is-a-well-played-attack.html

Is Team Obama’s ad a political punch to Romney’s magnificently chiseled jaw? Of course it is. It is harsh, exploitative, tacky even. It is, in short, perfectly in keeping with today’s political climate.

Obama’s Osama bin Laden Ad Is a Well-Played Attack
by Michelle Cottle May 1, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

The president’s new ad trumpeting bin Laden’s killing may well politicize national security, as the GOP complains. But Obama’s just taking a page from a playbook the Republicans have trusted since 2001, says Michelle Cottle. Osama bin Laden has been dead a year, Team Obama has made a campaign ad touting the president’s ballsiness in ordering the kill, and suddenly everyone from John McCain to Arianna Huffington is going batshit.

It was hardly surprising that members of Team Romney found the ad objectionable, as it blatantly suggests the governor would have responded differently. Romney’s foreign-policy advisers have proclaimed themselves “saddened” by the president’s “unbecoming” conduct, while longtime GOP über-operative Ed Gillespie asserts that the ad proves Obama is “one of the most divisive presidents in American history.” McCain, meanwhile, slipped on his serious statesman’s jacket to scold, “Shame on Barack Obama for diminishing the memory of September 11th and the killing of Osama bin Laden by turning it into a cheap political attack ad.”

The most flamboyant shot, however, came from the left, as Huffington denounced the ad as “one of the most despicable things you can do.” Really, Arianna? One of the most despicable? That’s a mighty bold statement, and it suggests a severe lack of imagination. But if that’s how you really feel, allow me to retort. Boo hoo hoo.

Obama has made an attack ad. A tough one. One that suggests Governor Romney doesn’t have the right stuff to cope with the very dangerous world we live in. An attack that arguably—gasp!—politicizes national security. Oh my God. The nerve. You know who this puts Obama on par with? Every fricking Republican who has run for office since 2001. Oh, yeah, and Hillary Clinton, whose infamous 3 a.m. phone-call ad from 2008 is being revisited in the wake of Obama’s new one.

more at link

[hlthe2b]

1. I'm glad they went after Arianna as well... What an obnoxious opportunist.

Good piece.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. More dollars for her for more rightwinger website views. It's just phenomenal that

she uses the word "despicable"....which I equate to people like Cheney and Bush - fake wars and such.

[GoCubsGo]

2. Ed Schultz just had on Jon Stoltz of Vote Vets

He tore 'em a new one. He reminded people that the GOP held their convention in NYC for the specific purpose of politically exploiting Sept. 11. I think I heard that he also made similar comments on HuffyPoo, although I prefer not to give them the clicks to go and find out. I'm sure we'll be seeing his comments on this matter elsewhere, too.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. I wish Obama's team could have come up with a better way to show Romney's hypocrisy

Last edited Wed May 2, 2012, 08:24 AM - Edit history (1)

this just gives them ammunition...Now they are digging up Navy Seals to speak against Obama. We didn't
need this, for sure.

[SunSeeker]

12. Wha...? Link re Navy Seals speaking against Obama please!

And how does pointing out a promise kept and a major accomplishment amount to "giving them ammunition"?


By the way, the spell checker button is a wonderful thing, it gets the heading and the body of your post.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. Here you go !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137636/Osama-bin-Laden-death-SEALs-slam-Obama-using-ammunition-bid-credit.html

I happen to think there are other ways, less overt, to call attention to accomplishments. The second Obama mentioned it, it
opened the door for the opposition to say he was bragging about it.

Thank you so much for calling the spelling error to my attention. Yes, I am familiar with spell checker

[SunSeeker]

15. Nice Swiftboat article citing 3 retired SEALs and one unnamed "serving" SEAL.

Last edited Fri May 4, 2012, 12:58 AM - Edit history (1)

And how could he keep what happened a secret? He killed OBL for Pete's sake. And nice line from the undoubtedly Repug ex-SEAL about how the mission was a "no-brainer." Really? Rumsfeld called off a similar mission 6 years ago and Bush called off the troops at Tora Bora. And when Carter did it and men died, the Repugs never let him hear the end of it. So no, it was not a "no-brainer." It took courage and a lot of brains, not to mention funding the OBL unit Bush de-funded.

Yes, I'm sure you (and the Repugs) can think of many "less overt" ways of calling attention to the accomplishments. As in, any way that doesn't tell all Americans, so they can keep up their more overt propaganda campaign that Obama is a failure. Nice try.

[tularetom]

3. Wait a minute - AOLianna Huffington is on "the left"?

Maybe 10 years ago, sure as hell not now.

She's now a card carrying member of the beltway media.

[killbotfactory]

6. Considering Romney made a fuss about how he wouldn't attack targets in Pakistan

This ad seems pretty fair game to me. It's not Obama's fault Romney and the republicans have blindly criticized his every move since he became president.

[bluestate10]

7. Where were DU Progressives and Huffington when Bush II, Cheney and Rudy.

were using 9/11 as justification for every one of their actions and in their campaigns. Where was, or better still, IS the fucking outrage of some DU rags that do nothing but pan Obama is every post? The fact is, Obama made a ballsy decision that could have cost him any chance at re-election had it went wrong, flip-flooper Romney could not and would not have put himself on that type of limb. The test of character is whether a person makes a firm decision when the outcome is unknown and can hurt them. Obama makes tough decisions like finding bin laden, saving the US auto industry and it's numerous suppliers, fighting for healt care reform that no single President before him could get, ending dicrimination against patriotic gays that want to serve their country in the military. Romney doesn't have either the vision, or the guts to make any of those decisions from the vantagepoint that Obama made them.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. Amen. We should ALL defend him to the hilt on this. That's what they would do and they

had a lot more stupid shit to defend.

[JDPriestly]

9. Does anyone remember all the strategically timed terrorist alerts during

GWBush's presidency? Talk about the political use of the 9/11 scare.

Personally, I think that GWB knew where Bin Laden was before Obama went after him but that GWB did not have the guts to go after him.

[tallahasseedem]

11. I certainly do...

which is why I think it's brilliant that the President is taking this ridiculous talking point away from them.

[JoePhilly]

10. Romney would have called McCain and decide to NOT go into Pakistan.

Now let them each explain why that's not what would have happened.

McCain said he would NOT go into Pakistan. Romney said he was unlikely to do so ...

As Rudy 9-11 G would say, THANK GOD that Obama was President.

[SunSeeker]

13. Daily Beast calling this ad "exploitive" is wrong, even if in the context of a "defense" of Obama.

There is nothing exploitive about this ad. Obama is simply pointing out a promise kept and a major accomplishment. It just sickens me to think about the waste of lives in Iraq & Afghanistan, when the only appropriate response to 9/11 was exactly what Obama did in Abbottabad.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

17. 2001?

The Republicans were politicizing the failure of the hostage rescue mission back in 1980- Ironic when you consider the role Bush Sr's pals in the CIA played in bringing that failure about...

And speaking of Bush Sr- Anybody remember the 1st Gulf War?