President Obama seeking applause lines on the campaign trail for the Navy SEALs’ dispatch of Osama bin Laden is to be expected, of course. George W. Bush did the same thing. I saw it first-hand as a White House correspondent for The Washington Times in the 2004 campaign.
Bush touted his leadership in the War on Terror, noting how he was making the terrorist enemies of America fight on our terms and on foreign turf. He also often noted how his administration put measures in place — including a beefed-up intelligence and special-ops programs — that by 2011 had the training and experience to … well … quickly dispatch bin Laden when Obama gave the “go” sign.
But what struck me from the Los Angeles Times coverage of this Obama campaign stop was the comment the paper reported from Vice President Joe Biden.
In Washington, Vice President Biden, coming off another round of deficit talks, was asked by reporters whether Bin Laden’s killing at the hands of the U.S. military was illegal.
“Are you kidding?” Biden replied.
No. They are not kidding. Neither are most folks who wonder about the absurdity of the Obama administration simultaneously basking in the ability of the CIA to connect the dots that led to bin Laden, and still seeking to prosecute the individual CIA agents who made that kill possible.
I’m certain that the question posed to Biden — since it came from the MSM — was coming from the globalist angle: “Targeted assassinations are illegal by US law, and we violated Pakistan’s sovereignty … blah, blah, blah.” But the Obama administration’s long-held position has been to make illegal the methods that led to bin Laden’s death.
I hope Obama himself is made to answer for that dichotomy one day — and that he’s pressed to give a better answer than the ridiculous and flippant Biden.
(Pic credit: LA Times.)
