In November, Karl Rove's attack operation, Crossroads GPS, took a Bill Clinton quote out of context in order to launch a wildly misleading criticism of President Obama on taxes.
Today, Rove took another Bill Clinton quote out of context to launch another wildly misleading criticism of President Obama, this time on counter-terrorism.
Here's what Rove wrote in his new Wall Street Journal column:
As for the killing of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama did what virtually any commander in chief would have done in the same situation. Even President Bill Clinton says in the [Obama campaign's documentary] film "that's the call I would have made." For this to be portrayed as the epic achievement of the first term tells you how bare the White House cupboards are.
Greg Sargent noticed the problem with Rove's dishonesty.
[I]t's true, Clinton did utter those words. But here's the full quote from Clinton, at the 12:30 mark in the film: "He took the harder and the more honorable path. When I saw what had happened, I thought to myself, 'I hope that's the call I would have made.'"
In Rove's telling, Clinton said, "that's the call I would have made. What Clinton actually said was, "I hope that's the call I would have made."
It's almost as if Rove used his column, with his editors' permission, to lie to the public.
But let's take this a little further still, and note the larger Republican goal: Rove and a lot of other folks on the right desperately hope Americans won't consider the strike on bin Laden to be a key Obama accomplishment. They're wrong, but it's clearly part of a larger effort.
Whereas the initial GOP reaction to the bin Laden killing was to try to give Bush/Cheney partial credit for the mission, the new Republican line is that the mission itself was no big deal -- anyone in the Oval Office would have done the same thing, the argument goes.
The facts matter. Whereas the Bush/Cheney administration made a conscious, deliberate decision to deemphasize capturing the al Qaeda leader, Obama chose to shift the emphasis back.
[F]rom early in his administration Obama was focused on killing Osama Bin Laden and that he was involved in the process throughout. In June 2009, Obama directed his CIA director to "provide me within 30 days a detailed operation plan for locating and bringing to justice" Osama Bin Laden. By August 2010 intelligence officials had identified the suspicious compound where Osama lived.
It was Obama who instructed the CIA to make targeting bin Laden a top priority, breaking with his predecessor. It was Obama who oversaw five national security meetings to oversee plans for this operation. It was Obama who chose this mission, made final preparations, and gave the order.
If Rove and other Republicans want to spend 2012 debating whether Obama deserves credit for this accomplishment, I suspect the president's re-election team would be delighted. Rove's playbook says to attack a rival where he/she is strong, but in this case, he's doing Chicago a huge favor.
Leave a Comment:
classic rove, attack an issue where your candidate is weak and the president is strong
making sh#t up? that's classic rove, too
just rember who taught Bush to lie Mr rove did
I don't think so. Bush has throughout his life demonstrated, time and again, a facility for lying that is absolutely breathtaking. I suspect that Bush was born with this "ability".
Well, I can understand their desperation to change the focus of the discussion. You certainly don't want the American public to start wondering why Rove's boy wonder dropped the ball.
If Jonas Salk tried keeping his polio vaccine low cost today, he would be accused of being anti-business, because big pharm. would not be able to charge an arm and a let for it. There is nothing that President Obama can do that the GOP would not denigrate. As long as history is not outlawed, the GOP weasels, worms and snakes will run from their record and blame it on someone else.
they have for a long time and as long as they have sheep that follow, them they will continue!
OK cover your ears...that low down, scum sucking, chickenhawk POS is a LIAR extraordinaire and should ALWAYS be exposed by the...the MEDIA. He and his minions put out crap after crap showing how ROMNEY's gaffes are taken out of context 'I like to fire people'...but then DO IT THEMSELVES. It's WAY past hypocrisy. Bush signed TARP. Ergo the economy improving is due to Bush. OBL is dead. We WANTED him dead so Bush gets credit. ETC. ETC. The Wall Street Journal is just trading on it's past reputation...it has become a joke....AND unAmerican and unPATRIOTIC.
As opposed to getting a regular opportunity to regurgitate lies thru Rupert Murdock's Wall Street Journal!!!
Can I uncover my ears now? :)
Mego ... The OBL killing works just like 9/11 did. Remember that, according to Cheney, there was never an attack on American soil during the Bush admin. That's because in the world Repubs inhabit Clinton re-assumed the presidency on the evening of 9/10. The planes hit hours later, due to the Dems' lack of preparedness. Then Bush took back the office hours after the attack.
In Repub land, Bush, Cheney, and Rove grabbed back the presidency on the morning of May 1, 2011, in order to plan and direct the mission that killed OBL. Then, on the morning of May 2, they handed Obama back the presidency, saying, "Don't thank us. We just did what we know you couldn't do."
See how easy all of this is to understand.
Nice try Rove, you big meat head. You're a liar and war criminal and I don't even understand why you're not in jail.
The same reason none of the Bush/Cheney crew is in jail--if we started holding them responsible, the GOP would topple like a house of cards.
ccdiane...and this would be bad, EXACTLY WHY???
You nailed it Mego-516015! Karl Rove is a an underhanded lying SOB! The Republican party is full of them. It's sad to see so many Americans falling for this crap. Barrack Obama needs to win in 2012!
No almost to it.
Rove did what Rove always does, he lied and laughs all the way to the bank while he stuffs his overfilled pockets with other people's money.
Rove and several other should be in jail for the stupid thing they did.
So why didn't Bush make that decision in Tora Bora?
He never intended to actually do anything to bin Laden, he didn't want to find him, he didn't want to stop him.
Bush was focused on keeping America in fear and in debt so that he and his other warmongering buddies could profit more and take away more rights from Americans.
This is my question and always will be. Why didn't we get him when we we were so close in Tora Bora. That inexplicable pull back lurks in the back of my mind at all times. I have a number of possible explanations, but none that really seem convincing enough.
Another thing I have felt deeply since GHWB assumed office and immediately repealed things Clinton had done -- contraceptives to Africa and perhaps some environmental decisions, such as oil drilling off the coasts -- is that I'm tired of seeing things swing back and forth. We get all charged up when a Democrat gets into office and makes the right moves, only to have those moves repealed when the Republicans get into office.
I believe Obama works on a more even keel. He takes the long view, assesses what could actually make for permanent change and works for that. This is why I don't harbor as much resentment toward him as the left wing does. However, I admit that I his extension of the patriot act scares me horribly.I want to see this stuff addressed in the next term. There's no chance any of the Republicans will do that as President, so Obama's our only shot at that -- to say nothing of the urgent do-or-die need to keep have Obama make the next court appointments.
You kind of answered why he extended the act: he's taking the long view. Right now there's still not enough understanding and resentment of the bill for him to act with any mandate. It's not like the facts on it aren't out there either, plenty of it in the public domain to feel disgruntled about. The Occupy movement is what put the fire in his domestic policies but there's nothing similar fighting the Patriot act.
Funny, you'd think the Teabaggers, "defenders of liberty" that they are, would have jumped on the Patriot act long ago.
Having over a hundred thousand casualties to his credit shame, Rove is not satisfied. He wants to make economic casualties of 99% of America. It is so very hard to find an example of a GOP leader or wannabe with a conscience. State your goals honestly, Then if America is stupid enough to vote for you, it will get what it deserves.
Almost????
How about "
It's almost as ifRove undeniably used his column, with his editors' permission, to lie to the public." Thanks, Rupert.Bush/Rumsfeld relied on Afghan mercenaries, riddled with tribal rivalries and holding their hands out for bribes, to pursue OBL, who easily evaded them in Tora Bora.
Cheney keeps trying to give credit for the OBL capture to Bush in effect saying, "Torture works."
BTW, Clinton sent cruise missiles after OBL, who unfortunately had already moved. But Repubs just accused him of trying to distract from Lewinsky.
yes I believe Rove called it 'Wag the Dog'...
There's a book--I'm not sure that it's still in print, but it says things that I already knew, thanks to having an uncle in the rug business who spent 4 months a year in the middle east, going from Isfahan (now Tehran) down to Saudi Arabia. It's called: "House of Bush, House of Saud".
It's worth remembering that, --although the Saudis 'disowned' Osama bin Laden after 9/11,--that, was a political move oriented towards the West--NOT at all how they felt about one of their own. In the Arab countries, there was dancing in the streets when the names of the 19 hijackers became known--FIFTEEN of them, Saudi Citizens! (btw, NOT ONE IRAQI, among the other four!!!) Remember, the whole world was horrified by 9/11. Some world leaders even said "Today, we are all Americans".
(King Saud was well aware of what people would think in the West, when it became apparent that a SAUDI had brought down the twin towers, on 9/11).
But it gets much MUCH worse than that. It seems, way back when, when Bush #2 was still falling off barstools, that the family, at its wits end on how to treat their alky, had a brainstorm. "Let's", said Daddy "give Sonny an Oil Company to run. I guarantee you," he said to Mamma, "he'll be way too busy to even have time to lift even one glass!" And so it was decided--and Daddy put Sonny in charge of -- wait for it!--Arbusto Energy. A word here--
Arbusto, is the Spanish term for "shrub". Shrub was the family nickname for W, because that's how their Mexican servants referred to him. (In Spanish, it's not "chip off the old block" ,-- it's "shrub off of the old oak tree".) Well, Bush Jr made such a hash out of that company, that he was actually LOSING MONEY on his very own OIL COMPANY!!!
Even back in the 80s: that, took focus and application to accomplish!
Daddy Bush was at his wits end. He called on an old family friend, to help him with Sonny Boy. Even the old family friend couldn't help--the company was too far gone. He lent Bush money to keep his venture going--he forgave the loan when he saw that it was far too late to save anything. But that's what old family friends are for--when they're rich enough.
The name of this 'old family friend' of the Bush family? Osama bin Laden.
W has always been known to be EXTREMELY LOYAL to his friends. Osama bin Laden certainly qualified as that. The look of utter shock on Bush's face was real enough--he knew very well that the ONLY ONE who could have committed that assault was Osama bin Laden. How did Good Buddy Bush figure that? Well, for one thing, there was the bin Laden Construction Company--largest of its kind in the entire Arab world. They build skyscrapers and municipal buildings all over the world.
And for another thing--that being the case, Osama bin Laden would be the one who could most accurately figure the kind of force that it would take, to bring down those two 110-ft skyscrapers. One other of his good Saudi buddies had tried to take the WTC down, with bombs in the garage areas--it didn't at all work. The towers were planted too deep into Manhattan's bedrock. bin Laden wasn't too clear on the bedrock part--but he knew, as a construction engineer, that if you can't bring something down by destabilizing its base, then there was only one other way to bring it down...and that's from above.
Bush's "attempts" to capture bin Laden were cosmetic at best. He started a war with Iraq--which had had NOTHING to do with 9/11--and while we were busy "getting revenge for 9/11" Osama bin Laden was holed up in Tora Bora. I'm sure that our people weren't ALLOWED to "find bin Laden". And bin Laden--knowing that he was safe;--knowing that his good friend George would never let ANYONE hurt him, no matter what--slipped down the mountains, into Pakistan, to begin his new life.
There began a decade of lies. There was the lockdown of the country "Condition Yellow!" "Condition Orange" "Condition Red" (borrowed from Cold War times). And then, around (I believe) 2006/7, there came the famed TV Special "Looking for bin Laden" where Bush mooched around the Oval Office, "looking for bin Laden".
He lifted up a section of rug--shook his head, murmured "Nope--he's not here," then went over to the wall, looked behind a picture hanging there, shook his head once more, reported "Not here, either"... looked in the closet, shook his head...well, we who saw that 1) will never forget it and, 2) we knew then that finding the mass murderer who attacked our country on 9/11, was so far from being a priority to the man who had stolen our Presidency not once, but TWICE--that there had to be something, that wasn't quite right.
(I'm sure that Karl Rove advised against airing the "Finding bin Laden" special...but Bush would certainly have ignored him. After all...Bush couldn't be ABSOLUTELY SURE that it was HIS Osama bin Laden...well, we've all at some time or another, unfortunately become aware of the 'magical thinking' that alcoholics--sober or not--tend to indulge themselves in.
"Finding bin Laden" under Bush, was never going to happen. Of course Bush knew where bin Laden had gone--that was why our forces were PULLED OUT OF TORA BORA! Exactly so that he would NOT be found!!
Now the Republicans are yammering "anyone could have found bin Laden--WELL WHY DIDN'T THEY?!!! Their BOSS certainly knew where he was!
Their Boss, Bush, who with that skit that aired nationwide "Finding bin Laden" told everyone who had half a brain, that bin Laden would NEVER BE FOUND as long as Bush was in charge. Loyalty to his friends--one of his few virtues.
And THAT'S why Bush was NOT at the ceremony honoring Seal Team Six for FINDING AND KILLING OSAMA BIN LADEN. Now THAT'S LOYALTY.
Unfortunately, it wasn't loyalty TO HIS COUNTRY, WHOSE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF BUSH HAD BEEN FOR EIGHT LONG YEARS.
But it WAS loyalty, to one of Bush's best and oldest friends--Osama bin Laden.
His scent keeps hanging ing the air, like rotting cabbage and long-dead fish. And he still tries to convince us it's peach blossoms. WE know what kind of blossom you are, Karl...
His nickname in the White House was turdblossom.
Next we will hear that Rove Bush and Romney were the Seals.
When President Obama wins the election again what are those republicans going to do???? They look more stupid every day, they are like children playing with toys, they only care about one thing., themselves.
Same as we do every election, Pinky -- blame it on ACORN!
DC-
Best. Quote. Ever.
I stopped taking the Wall Street Journal when Murdoch bought it. Carl Rove and his ilk are all insidious people, they just lie and lie again. It is so frustrating that such a huge segment of our country are willing participants in the the huge lie factory that the Republicans have become.
A Rupert Murdoch news outlet allows lying? I am shocked.
But it is NOT a "huge segment of our country are willing participants in the huge lie factory that the Republicans have become."
It only LOOKS that way. It's called: The Republican Noise Machine. And it goes on this premise: A mouse with a bullhorn, possesses a bigger voice than a human WITHOUT a bullhorn, could ever have.
What facilitates the Noise Machine, are a collection of thugs, liars and convicted crooks--making way better money than they could even make, illegally. So yeah, it sounds like there's a lot of them.
But consider--the Republican Party as it was, has split itself completely. On the Far Right, there's the Tea Party crazies and the Evangelicals. And on the Left--most of those, are the Independents--formerly known as Republicans, back when the Republican Party meant something other, than a bunch of cheap, sleazy crooks.
"I really don't care about Osama Ben Laden." G W Bush
Karl Rove stretch the truth? You've got to be kidding! This man has never lied to push an agenda in his life.
of couse not ,and people who believe that are brainwashed!
And let's not forget that when Romney was asked about the specific type of operation that got bin Laden, going into Pakistan without their permission if we had credible intelligence, he said he wouldn't do it! It's pretty weak and self-defeating to argue that "virtually any commander in chief" would have done it, when we have your guy on tape saying that he's one of the ones that wouldn't.
Romney wasn't commander in chief. And, don't forget, VP Biden was opposed
Right, he was just running to be commander-in-chief, so why should we pay attention to anything he says about how he'd do the job? We should just assume he was lying or talking out his ass?
The fact is that Obama was criticized for saying as a candidate that he'd go in under those circumstances, and Romney said he wouldn't do it. Now he and Rove are trying to claim that "any president would have done it." It's possible that in those exact circumstances a president Romney might have decided to change his mind and go in, but there is still absolutely no basis for saying that of course he would, so it's not much of an accomplishment.
And nice job giving a self-contradictory argument -- Biden wasn't commander-in-chief either.
and what reason does Bush have for not getting him ,he just didn't have anyone who wasn't at the prison trying to waterboard,and he thought the seals all lived in the artic!

Note that even in his mendacity, Rove had to go back to a Democratic president to find a quote that was halfway spinnable. Even he couldn't get any mileage out of what "W"said about the pursuit of bin Laden:
The Bush, Rove, Romney, Clinton, and POTUS quotes should be put in an ad by OFA, DNC, or Dem superpac...well worth the money whoever pays for this "truth in advertising"...and play it in every state, not just those swing states who get all the ads!
Let's see now: on March 13, 2002, President George W. Bush said bin Laden wasn't much of a concern to him anymore, and that same year, Bush pulled Special Forces from the bin Laden hunt in Afghanistan to prep for Iraq. Bush shut down the CIA's bin Laden unit altogether in 2006.
And when Bush said and did these things, did we hear howls of protest from Republicans in Congress? Hell, no.
So much for the notion that "the mission itself was no big deal -- anyone in the Oval Office would have done the same thing." Not only did the fellow who was President on 9/11/2001 not do it, but apparently hardly anyone in his party was upset that he didn't.
So Rove, the WSJ, and the GOP can just take that pile of BS and stick it where the sun don't shine.
We're supposed to infer the unstated obvious, as in UN fair and Un balanced. As in DON'T have "evidence of weapons of mass destruction" Rove is a hip, now, with-it Twitter and text messaging kind of guy. No time for all the words, we have to abbreviate. These are not "lies" they're "abbreviations." Geez, RM, gt wth the prgrm.
karle the bush gang droped the ball an the cdr in chief pres obama caught the ball an did the right thing, get the hell over it an stop crying.
Faux news is doing the same thing with blaming Obama for gas prices...it's a good thing that history wins again..we have all kinds of video with O'reily, Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh all saying that the president has absolutely no control over the gasoline prices...and yet, the spin and the lies continue from any newpaper or network that has the Murdoch brand on it!!
Oh, that's all so mid-2000s. I just looked back at some receipts. I paid $4.65 a gallon (a competitive price from a station just off the freeway) in September of 2008. I seem to remember some guy named Bush being president then. Everything changes when the Republicans are out of office.
Touting that he killed the most wanted man in America and the only man to successfully launch attacks on the United States since Imperial Japan is so totally showing his cupboard's bare. I mean he should have so much crap in there that he shouldn't even get to the Osama Bin Laden pile! That's supposed to be stuffed wayyy in the back, next to that unlabeled can that expired a year and a half ago, but you haven't opened it cause you're afraid to see what's inside. Yes. Carl Rove totally has this one correct.
#sarcasm
Hey Mouzer, you got the RePukers' spiel from their Noise Machine exactly right--to the point where until I looked down & saw your #sarcasm, you had me absolutely convinced that you believed that crap...