A CBS radio reporter sent White House press secretary Jay Carney, along with President Obama and Vice President Biden, to detention today. It’s called accountability, folks. Their crime: Mentioning the death of Osama bin Laden in speeches so often that it’s beginning to look like they’re using this for what experts call “political advantage.” If true, this would be… illegal… bad… something else… huh?
We’ve scanned thousands of pages in the Political Press Corps’ Almanac of Dumb Little Prissy Rules About Campaign Etiquette and still can’t find anything that says, “If your administration kills Osama bin Laden, you are not allowed to use this to your political advantage in the ensuing election.” Jay Carney doesn’t seem to have heard of this rule, either. Maybe they just forgot to include it? It will have to be added to the almanac, right now, and with a broader scope. “Presidential administrations are strictly prohibited from campaigning on popular things they’ve done” — that should cover it. Now let’s all fold our hands and pray for everyone to get along.
["Is Obama campaigning on Bin Laden death?", CBS]




{ 149 comments }
Hey, at least Obama's not having sex with OBL's corpse…
Let's not get crazy, this isn't Egypt….
Besides, they weren't married. Or even dating, as far as I know.
No, that's who Newt's having sex with…
But oh, those first six hours…
Well, not any more…
Don't give Romney any ideas: "Once again, Obama is projecting weakness to the world. Sure, he killed Osama bin Laden, but did he have sex with his corpse? I would have!"
Romney would have killed him by tying him to the top of the car.
If Bush had killed Osama Bin laden, you can bet Cheney would have been drinking from his skull at every public appearance.
I would not be surprised if he made it the seal of the president.
It would be the seal, the face of the one thousand dollar bill and emblazoned on skull cups in every home department of every wal mart from sea to shining sea.
this is ALMOST skull fucking.
We have come a long way in the USA. "We kill people, vote for us."
It's a brave new century!
What's the Bush/Cheney death score? Obama's got a lot of catching up to do!
How soon they forget: "Rumsey dumsey, rumsey dumsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh!”
It worked for Washington!
I dunno – haven't we rather been that way since the beginning?
HAHAHAHAA i was JUST reading charles taylor's bio and apparently that was (almost) his campaign slogan – the one that swept him into the presidency in 1997:
"He killed my ma, he killed my pa, I will vote for him."
maybe bamz should think about this.
Can Obama take credit if he kills Peter Maer? Just a straightforward question.
Funny that Obama can't mention Bin Laden, but the wingnuts can carry on about Breitbart.
Apparently, like with the GOPtards' "Stand Yer Ground" laws, it's all about who you kill.
Rudy 9-11 likes their hustle.
Oh they are only pissed because they thought he said Obama was dead. It is unseemly to let your disappointment show that much.
"Is there any discomfort at the White House about politicizing the decisions and everything else that surrounded the takedown of bin Laden?"
Yeah, we're actually very embarrassed to remind people of President Obama's successes in an election where his foreign policy cred is being attacked.
Moran.
More than there would have been in Dumbya's White House, I'm sure.
Obama should be more demur, like Bush, who never even mentioned defeating Saddam Hussein during the 2004 campaign.
Muhammed Ali said it best: "It's not bragging if you can back it up." Then again, he was a Muslim just like Obama, so go figure.
Didn't Satchel Paige say it first?
Bush can run on trying to defeat him but Obama can't mention actually killing him…
Can I haz that damn scary liberal media they are always going on about?
That's because Bush talking about it was purely aspirational.
Obama mentioning it after the fact is plain tacky, obviously.
Actually, during the Presidential debate with Sen. Kerry, President Bush denied he'd ever said he didn't care about Osama Been Forgotten.
Obama didn't personally cap Osama, so he shouldn't take credit. It's so crass!
Does George 9/11 Bush have any comment about this yet?
Certainly no Republican would ever have politicized 9/11 or Osama bim Laden; why George Bush's entire reelection campaign wasn't based on "Osama gonna get you if you elect Kerry!"
Yes, and the Bush administration never had Homeland Security change the color of the terrorist threat for political gain either.
Nope, they certainly didn't whip out a color change and reports of a vague threat every time some good news for Kerry came in, then immediately stop using the system after the election. Never.
Be fair – they also had "teh gheys want to marry – society is falling apart!"
this is one of the few unalloyed delights of the obama presidency: thinking of bamz at last year's whcd – and then thinking of the chicken hawks dealing with the fact that the socialist muslim fist bumping terririst got america's enemy #1.
Obama is not allowed to campaign on this point because Bush wasn't able to.
perfect.
Exactly – I can hear the wingnut chorus now: " Bush never said he killed Osama bin Laden, and you know that the elite liberal east coast Ivy League liberal America-hating liberal media would have shredded Bush if he talked about how he did it. But of course they're perfectly fine with Hussein Obama going around saying it. More evidence (as if we needed any) of the left-wing bias conservatives have to face."
Well, they're right, aren't they? Fox News says they're right – so there!
Whereas the Bush Administration never killed him but dropped his name all the time to gain political advantage.
I'm your boogie man
That's what I am…
KC libel!
Just to be clear: Obama can not claim responsibility for killing Osama Bin Laden but GWB can claim responsibility for being our fearless leader on 9/11.
When he bravely ran away…
George "Sir Robin" Bush.
Osama as the Bumper Sticker for the campaign, bitch? The Bumper Sticker says "Run Mitt. Run" and it goes on the front of the car.
Oh are we recycling right wing jokes now?
Yes.
See Mitt Run. Run Mitt, Run. Hit Mitt!
Is Seamus driving?
IOKIYAR. IOKIYAR. IOKIYAR.
You know who else campaigned on killing their enemies? (Honestly, I don't know, just curious.)
all of them, Katie?
Attila the Hun?
Attila them Hunny?
Attila them, Katie?
I think I can get a lot of mileage from this one on this thread:
"Rumsey dumsey, rumsey dumsey, Colonel. Johnson killed Tecumseh!”
Queen Elizabeth?
Inigo Montoya?
Ulysses Grant?
Look I voted for the Governator because I thought he was going to "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." But like most politicians, he promised more than he could deliver.
I can see the problem — mentioning that they killed Osama bin Laden is tacitly blaming the Dubya administration for the failure to have killed him. In much the same way that mentioning ending the recession is blaming Dubya for causing it, and mentioning getting us out of Iraq is blaming Dubya for not having been able to do that, and mentioning passing the Lily Ledbetter Act is blaming Dubya for keeping it from passing.
So the problem is that it's cowardly — see, if Dubya could win an election on a solid four-year record of colossal failure, it's just kind of sissyish of the Obama administration to run solely on its successes. Play fair, guys — really.
Dubya was responsible for a lot of bad shit that Obamer's been trying to clean up.
It's like they were a bunch of incompetent motherfuckers who didn't have the ability to manage even an ice cream truck.
Oh hell no, I am not listening to the assholes STILL CHANTING "Tear down this wall" bitch about a DAMN thing PresO is talking about. Not happening.
You go, girl!
Question about posts deleted by administrators: Are 'clusterfuck' and 'dumbassery' now forbidden words?
EDIT: Not as forbidden as whatever else I posted. Huh.
You probably posted about higher math, involving sines and cosines and Signs Of The DEMON OBAMA!!!1!1!1!!!!1!!'
However "*****" will still result in a PERMA-BAN!!
… uh, oh….
Nearly a year later ,and when seal team 6 took out Bin Laden I still want to go out ,and dance naked in the streeet! Hey,don't judge me.The best day ever!
What do you look like naked? Then we can judge.
Those pics are all over the web,Ex wives can be a bitch.The clown in the background was a paid professional.That's all I have too say.
So, what was the donkey's alibi?
Who told you about the donkey?No animals were hurt in the production of this comment.
No one's crying for Osama, but it woulda been good to get intel outta him…
We're not allowed to think about that. Or "trials," or "evidence," or "due process." Sure, we have a decent argument for killing him on sight. But think of how the world would regard us if we'd given him a trial.
Of course the dudes at Gitmo forever would be all "Hey what about us, Barry?"
Can you imagine the pants-pissing fit the Republicans in Congress would have had? They nearly wet themselves when Holder was talking about holding trials in NYC – actually capturing OBL would have probably left them sobbing in corners, begging for their mommies.
And shredding evidence of negligence/complicity/profiteering…
Cold, incisive reporting, asking the uncomfortable questions of those in power. Or, put another way, he's just a dumb fuck.
"Is there any discomfort…" in being a douchnozzle?
Then I demand Romney stops mentioning "The America that Americas exceptionally because it's the Americanest America, and how he believes in it Americally."
Quiet rooms, people! Geez! How many times I gotta tell you?
Preferably mahogany paneled rooms at the Harvard Club, with only rich white males in attendance.
The way it's always been.
Can't boast about the truth, now.
Since Bammerz inherited the OBL problem and killed him, shouldn't George Bush Jr. get the all credit?
Well duh, what you're supposed to do is campaign on popular things that you haven't done but have claimed to have done, like "Mission Accomplished."
Compare and contrast:
Landing on an aircraft carrier when the war rages on and surges years later is "Mission Accomplished".
Killing the 911 planners and ending the Iraq war is "Politicization".
I think you're burying the *REAL* scandalous lede on recent Biden remarks:
Biden: "I promise you: the President has a big stick".
How big do you think it is?
Even Tweetie almost cracked a smile on that one this afternoon.
That's what she (FLOTUS) said!
It's like Obama is reminding GOPers that they had 7 fucking years and didn't do jack except invade the wrong fucking country.
George W. Bush was able to run for re-election on the basis he finally learned not to pronounce it "new-KEW-ler'".
Oh wait, he never learned that. Never mind.
Bush/Cheney killed like 500,000 + civilians in their foreign policy "triumphs." But at least they had the dignity and respect to brag about it in quiet rooms.
Cheney is so low key and unassuming when he explains how his criminal preemptive invasion & mass-murder campaign of Iraq started the Arab Spring.
Thank you so much for shooting me in the face with that buckshot of an article. I hope it didn't upset you at all Mr. D_R.
I will never apologize for it.
I'm waiting for them to ask Romney what color hair dye he uses, and if the mormons prohibit such stimulation of hair folicles.
The real question is: Who is your avatar and what is her phone number?
Obama = He's a bad muther- Shut your mouth.
Mittens might be worried Seal Team 6 is looking for him.
AP Interview, Thursday, April 26, 2007
Romney also said the country would be safer by only "a small percentage" and would see "a very insignificant increase in safety" if al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was caught because another terrorist would rise to power. "It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person," Romney said. Instead, he said he supports a broader strategy to defeat the Islamic jihad movement.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Romney probably doesn't want people to wonder if he baptized bin Laden into the LDS post mortem.
ROMNEY: "You ate a dog"
That'll get Obama some votes in certain parts of ReThug-Red Orange Co., CA
That's how I envision the entire series of Presidential debates going down, should there be a series of Presidential debates.
Setting Osama B.L. aside for a moment, remember how, as the 2008 election approached, all the Fox news people and such kept repeating "Bush kept us safe" – it was clearly one of the Republican message central phrases of the week, several weeks running – when the worst terrorist act in American history happened on his watch, after he had dismissed explicit warnings? Strange how nobody on Fox is saying that "Obama kept us safe", even though (knock on wood) he's kept a clean sheet, and hasn't even needed to take the mulligan that you're apparently allowed under Fox rules.
(he ate a dog).
My loud gush of laughter just convinced everyone in the coffee shop I'm nuts. The parentheses and lower case "h" are superb touches.)
I heard on Fox that BHO hasn't kept us safe the way W did. What about that threat from the Russians? Hengh?
He kept us safe after he didn't keep us safe.
W campaigned on 9/11 and nobody got upset.
IOKIYAR
"Now, watch this drive!"
Has Obama ever said anything – even "hello" – that the Republicans haven't decided to turn into a scandal?
Republicans? No. But this is supposedly the *straight* media
Remember the "Terrorist Fist Bump?"
Hell, remember the caterwauling and shitting of pants over Cheeseburger-with-mustardgate?
Also bowing and apologizing.
Pansy Lame Stream Media doesn't like the fact that a Democrat POTUS took on an enemy with lethal force. Go drink a latte or something and dream about the Pulitzer you are never going to get.
True, it is their worstest nightmare. A fey librul Democrat President who kills people – and black to boot.
They call him MISTER President!
To be perfectly clear.
dumbass.
Bush campaigned on NOT getting Osama *and* on how prettily he threw a baseball while wearing a bulletproof vest after 9/11.
OBL died?
It is going to be a long campaign and Hopey can't run on the killing of Osama till election day. Maybe he could reanimate Hitler for a campaign booster kill.
No respect for the dead, inpeach him!
I agree with comments above that the President has been cleaning up W's poo. Go ahead, Rmoney, defend W's record and tell us how YOU would have fixed it all. Freakin' bastard.
He's already told you: he'll cut taxes, eviscerate regulations, invade oil producing countries, increase military spending, project an unbroken attitude of mindless unremitting arrogance to foreign nations, friend and foe alike,…
In other words, he'll do exactly what Bush did. But it will totally work this time, because what prevented it from working before are all those damned unions. And this time they'll smash Social Security and Medicare, which will make it 100% betterer.
"Huzzah, Lovey! Sanity has returned to Washington –
Have the butler bring us another bottle of chilled urchin's tears!"
Weird isn't it, how Dems nailed the country's biggest enemies – FDR and now Obama. Also add Woodrow Wilson. You'd think Repubs are a bunch of incompetents and wussies, wouldn't you?
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that most of the saber-rattling that leads us into wars is done on the repub's watch, so the dems have to actually do the dirty work.
Obama Osama is going to get you. Right now you sit in bleachers and worship him with your goo goo eyes wide shut. But at the end of the game you tired little retards are going to kneel before him and wish you hadn't bee such stupid fucking losers. Osama Obama is da boogie man vampire. And you stupid retards are the ones that invited him into your house.
Yes, yes, that's exactly right. The Double O, as we (and FLOTUS) like to call him, is like a Tom Cruise movie and Twilight and Friday the Thirteenth all wrapped into one.
I, for one, welcome our Kenyan Vampire Sex Fiend Magic Monster Overlords.
Sincere and batshit crazy or blunt-force snark? Wonkette reports; you: don't give a fuck!
Are you better off now, than four years ago
Osama: Yes!!! I was living with 3 wifes, so, uh, yeah…
Wonder if they would like some cheese with their whine.
What a stupid question. That reporter should be in Gitmo.
Mission Accomplished.
If he wanted to make political hay, he would have waited to kill the bastard right before the election.
Fortunately for the CIA, it's named after Bush the Smarter.
And the George W. Bush Center for Intelligence would certainly be a secret facility, and very difficult to find.
And, of course, it's just more messaging and spin – and it's brilliant, as much of their messaging is – because I haven't heard Obama mention Bush much at all. The Republicans realize they face the problem that, in fact, much of where we are right now is Bush's fault, and people know it. So they want to undercut that simple observation with the idea that Obama is constantly using it as an "excuse". Because nobody likes people who give excuses, even when they are, in fact, always completely exculpatory.
I can't believe all you idiots actually believe in that Op. Unbelievable.
Thanks Mr. Bernais.
Nor in the production of "those pics" – in fact, they seem eager…
What's sad is that this is the kind of wingnut comment that is made in all seriousness. Snark, meet Paranoia; Paranoia, Snark.
It sodding was not! It was Shaw!
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