White House photo
Romney campaign chairman John Sununu talked to the New York Times' Andrew Goldman, who asked whether Sununu felt there was too much "football spiking over Osama bin Laden" at the Democratic convention. The Republican replied:
"The president is trying to take credit for following the strategy and the tactics put into place by George W. Bush. At some point the president is going to have to explain why he was timid on the first two or three opportunities that we had. Thank goodness Hillary Clinton was there was to convince him to do the right thing."
Moments later, Sununu conceded, "I have no idea what happened in that White House," after just having said he knew what happened in the White House.
I continue to find this entire line of attack deeply strange. For one thing, Sununu is relying on an odd anti-Obama book that has struggled badly to stand up to scrutiny.
For another, Obama wasn't "timid on the first two or three opportunities." On the contrary, it was Donald Rumsfeld who called off missions to get bin Laden he considered too risky.
Perhaps most importantly, Obama wasn't "following the strategy and the tactics put into place by George W. Bush," he did the exact opposite. 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."
But from a purely strategic perspective, what does Sununu hope to gain from resuming this fight? How does it help Romney to remind everyone that Obama took an enormous risk when he ordered the strike, but he made the tough call and it paid off?
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What a bunch of sore losers, tag you're it. Not only do they not believe in apologizing, they also have no idea how to just say Thank You. What other dictators fit this profile?
C'mon BO is a pussie and only rode Bush's coat tails to get Obama, oh sorry, my bad, I mean Osama.
""The president is trying to take credit for following the strategy and the tactics put into place by George W. Bush."
Yes, like the strategy of diverting manpower, money, and public attention away to another nation that had nothing to do with the attack on this nation 11 years ago! No, thank goodness that President Obama didn't follow that strategy. But I will concede that "diverting the public's attention" hasn't exactly failed the GOTP in the past!
And what does that conversation have to do with Romney, well, IMHO it is an attempt to push up "Bush's perceived strengths" as a GOTP'er which is somehow supposed to "magically" give Mittens the "veneer of strength" as a fellow GOTP'er. It's a different version of "the Emperor has NO clothes on" - only it's assuming that WE the PEOPLE can't tell the difference either between "Emperors or no clothes"....
Dali - take your noxious BS somewhere else. should we roll the take of Bush telling us he wasn't concerned about OBL? Now we know he had warnings as early as May 2001? and several before the famous Aug 6th warning?
You are a joke!
Yeah, if it wasn't for Eve eating that damn apple we could be running around naked, now the truth is out there for all to see.
You act as if you are expecting coherent arguments from Sununu. That's not what he does. He's a troll. His job is to create static.
I totally agree with you. Sununu purpose is to create chaos and confusion.
Romney could have probably found a worse surrogate for himself than Sunnunu but I believe that Cheney's health won't allow him to travel that much these days.
Christie, Cheney's understudy, is the diva in that role now.
Christie ate Cheney and he is speaking from within.
Pure Gold!
As Jon Stewart so succinctly put it, POB made sure there is no 'eye' in Bin Laden.
I of course disagree with box muncher Maddow yet again. The Obama administration is trying to take all the credit for getting rid of OBL, yet he's failed to acknowledge that this was done by both sides. If Romney would have been in the White house at the time he would have gotten him. If Bush would of been in the White House at the time, he would have gotten him. Follow the pattern. If Clinton would have been in the White House at the time, he would have gotten him. If Clinton would have done his job 15 years ago, 9/11 may not have happened, or at least OBL would have been killed then.
Quit taking credit for something any president would have done at the present time. We got the bastard and who cares who was leading when that happened. The real people that killed him were the SEALS and they should be getting the praise, not the president. The military should be getting the praise, not the president. The military is made up of both parties and did the work, not the president. Quit using this as political advantage, then cry when the republicans are using the newest 9/11 attack to hurt the presidents lack of foreign policy.
Just wow, your opinion is noted.. Did you not notice that the SEALS operate exclusively under the suggestion of the President? Did we not wait 8 years (under Dumbya) and commit trillions of dollars in tax payer funding to invade and occupy two countries in order to actually never get the one guy at the top of the list? All hail the @!$%#ing military because they're box munchers too, well at least some of them.. Your hindsight is also impeccable!
Um you don't think the president is getting advised from the military. You fail to see the truth and if you think the president made that call based off of his knowledge, you're dumber than I could have guessed. All the president gets to do is pull the trigger so to speak. Again any president in that room would have done the same thing. Open your eyes and expand your brain please!!!
Good job Dalilama10. You reitereated the script absolutely word perfect.
Vituperative pejoratives as a sure sign of a weak intellect. (That's Name Calling", you ijit)
aw Dali is just jealous that Maddow has a real girlfriend, unlike his patched up inflatable.
You can't be...no, c'mon. You cannot be that stupid. "If Bush would have been in the White House at the time..." You mean like he was from 2001 - 2008?
And I don't get offended by much on the intertoobz, particularly from idiot trolls, but the idea that you would cop the Dalai Lama's name (forget about misspelling it) and throw around terms like "box muncher" definitely qualifies. You, sir, are an @$$#*!&.
Simple solution. Now that the Admin. has admitted that it was a terrorist attack, find the person responsible and put a bullet through their eye. Can't claim it was a Bush policy and backs up all of these fluff-speeches since the attack.
Right so the BO admin. is assassinating its opponents. Where is the bleeding heart liberal left on this state sanctioned assassination of its opponents?
I think this line of attack is trying to say that Obama needs a woman (Hillary) to give him backbone - that he's weaker than a girly president. Obviously, I think that's ridiculous, but it probably resonates in some conservative crowds.
It's the same crowd, though, isn't it Tombisson, that they always play to?
GOP leadership is sleep talking to a base that is sleep walking through this election.
Dalilama10 is a case in point. 10's post is the same stale conformist defense of his leaderships oft-repeated stale conformist non-issues. As much as 10 could have typed this post in his sleep, the faces repeating yet again these pointless lies could also do so in their sleep.
They aren't working to lure any thinking voters with this kind of tripe.
needmorecoffee,
Please continue to think that way. If your party thinks in the same manner, there will be more attacks in the next 4 years than in the past 12. Regardless of who is president, we have to protect our people who are trying to bring peace. Will it ever happen, probably not. But we'll continue to be there with the hope that it will change. There's nothing stale about that my friend, it's the truth.
What is your definition of "truth", 10. Perhaps we should start with that.
Who is included in your definition of "our people" because your post indicates some phobias.
Perhaps in your haste to lecture those who's opinions differ from yours, you haven't bothered to notice how often your exact words have been repeated here by others bent on their own lectures. Thus my treatment of your post as stale and unoriginal. The real Dali Lama was a humble human who didn't elevate his opinion over others. Stealing his name to make stale points shows a degree of disrespect. And future projecting attacks, 10? Psychic on top of everything else?
You have as much right to your opinion as anyone, of course but not sure what a phobic disrespectful psychic could know of truth, really, friend.
Hey, remember when the rightwing trolls were saying in the immediate months before and after Obama's election, how sure they were that Al Qaeda were going to strike on US soil again in Obama's first term because he was a weak, novice, appeasing blargity-blarg-blargghh? I remember that. Good times.
When will the media wake up and tell Sununu he is more than yesterdays news. He spouts off more and more all the time. Ask him if he reallys thinks he is relevent ?? Most Americans don't.
He spouts off more and more all the time.
Maybe he gets frequent flier miles?
I had to endure him as my governor. Spouting insulting nonsense is pretty par for the course with him. He gets defensive if questioned and tends to attack without thinking. Why would any competent campaign try to utilize him as a surrogate? Wait, I think I answered my own question.
Nobody's watching.
The strategy, if it could be called that, is to deny Obama credit for anything good and blame for everything bad. It is simple and completely childish. Sununu should stick to stamp auctions.
Do we remember how the GOP howled at the very idea that Obama, as the new president, could even think of broadcasting a welcome back to school message Sept of ''09? They have worked assiduously at tearing him apart since day one. Sununu is just newer to the game than the others.
Yes, I remember that Back to School Message. How dare he tell children that they should go to school and get a good education! What subversion! <snark>
What a ridiculous row the right wing made about that! Don't they believe that children should go to school and get an education to give them better futures? What am I saying? Of course they don't!
BO is a limp wristed lefty pussie!
This is getting embarrassing for the Republicans. I just watched a Romney surrogate tell Chuck Todd that Obama should have intervened in the 2009 Iran elections! Gosh, I'm sure Middle Eastern countries just love American meddling... This whole fake fiasco about calling the Libyan murders terrorism is not only stupid and distastefull, it won't change any minds. These folks are so frightened of the hatefull base, they will say anything...
Lebowsky,
So you're saying the Libyan attack was not planned and is not an act of terrorism? I sure hope not. But if you are I would love for you to meet the parents of those killed and explain your views.
You're a disgrace if you think that way!
And the reason it won't change any minds is because the left wing media bias fails to report on it because they know it will hurt the president. It was an act of terror and our president failed the victims, their families, and this country. Wake up dude and lay off the bong!
The right wing media reports on it, 10.
The right wing media reports on it, and everything else they can use to discredit their own president. You'd think his taking out enemy number one would be a boon, even to the Republicans. But no, they act like brats and tear him down over it. He did in his first three years what Bush couldn't do in his last 6. Period.
Dalilama: Please at least have the courtesy to allow others to make their own points. I don't base my entire world view on announcements made about murders, terrorist or mob or random. The current Administration has been in power for years, and they have done a good job on foreign policy. Go ahead and hyperventilate all day about this, but just know that you make yourself look quite petty. Amb. Stevens was a brave man who loved his job and the Middle East, and I highly doubt his family supports people like you trying to make hay out of his murder.
Bull Shii Dude. Susan Rice covered up the fact that the Obummer Admin knew that this was a planned assassination while the Obummer Admin sat back and let their Ambassador be assassinated - Shameful!!!
Wait, huh? The President is now trying to take credit for Bush's what exactly? I smell horseshet, but of course, that's all I ever smell coming from the small-government-tax-your-uterus-sociopath party. When is enough enough people? When does our voting populace expel the morons in leadership positions? I guess as soon as we stop believing in Space-Jesus and poisoning our oceans.. Like that is ever going to happen!
Sununu continues to prove that he is a first class hack. Let's not forget this was the guy that had to leave government service for abusing his position using government air travel for his own personal use. When I opened the Times Magazine yesterday I couldn't believe they gave any space to this jerk. Only sean hannity is more delusional then Sununu
Conservatism is a mental disorder.
This weekend Yahoo had posted a Reuters story about an interview Ann romney gave KTVN last week. When asked what her greatest concern would be if Mitt was elected she stated that she feared for his Mental Health if he is elected President .
Hers is a very valid concern, but the continued degradation of his current mental state will not affect what he's bringing to the Oval Office, a pen.
Am I the only one who thinks Romney is acting like he's in the early stages of Alzheimers?
"Conservatism is a mental disorder."
Jesus didn't ride around on dinosaurs????!!!!!!!
I think it's absolutely disgraceful and reprehensible to allege that Romney is the early stages of Alzheimers. He is clearly, at the very least, in the intermediate stages.
Is Sunununununununu n u n u .....talking about the same Bush that said he didn't know where bin Laden was, and frankly didn't care? The same Bush that disbanded the task force that was hunting bin Laden down?
Ah, yes. That Bush. I see.
Keep it up, Republicans. This will earn you bonus points with the swing voters who are looking for some semblance of honestly earning their vote.
It's also weird that no one mentions Sunnunu's own heritage: Palestinian, born in Cuba of Palestinian parents born in Central America... Hmm. And this is the guy who's backing Romney and his 'no daylight' between Israel and the US?
The larger issue is that Romney is running supposedly based on his awesome management abilities.
So how is he doing on managing his "Cabinet officers" such as Sununu, Christie, etc? Is this the kind of management we'd see for four years if he's elected?
The whole problem with this Afghanistan war is we can thank Bush, Chenney, and the Republicans deceptions and lies in the avoidance of not doing anything about the terrorists attacking on 911. Bush, Chenney, and the Republicans wanted these wars so they could keep power and manipulate the American people for their foolish dark agenda. And now they want to sit there and try to pretend that this is all President Obama’s fault. President Obama who is a person who is standing up for the American people and the world. Guess again you pack of Republican hypocrites. These Republicans are no more than the same load of crap with extremists of hatred and religious hypocrites. McCain himself Mr. Warmonger with his kill, kill, and more killing attitude is sitting there all at once trying to pretend to change his view of getting out of Afghanistan. The very person who just wants to keep fighting senselessly with no real solutions. Geesh McCain retire for once, because you are not doing any good for anybody you hypocrite. Who has been the biggest promoter of wars and that is the Republicans. Do we really get anything really moving in the right direction when we use senseless weapons to try to change things for the better? No, never, because once you start killing the innocent, it just keeps making things worse. Regardless, whatever they want to say about president Obama, he has been far better than these Republican hypocrites. And they sit there and wonder why people get so fed up with these foolish and corrupt politicians? Wake up and smell the coffee brewing.
Fantasy Football ain't got nothing on these nutcases. It is as if the right simply can not abide with reality or stand truth. Ah, but they are "good christians"---NOT.
Oh they're good Christians...as long as Jesus never fed or clothed the poor...or never turned the money changers out of the temple....or never protected a prostitute from being stoned to death.
For another, Obama wasn't "timid on the first two or three opportunities." On the contrary, it was Donald Rumsfeld who called off missions to get bin Laden he considered too risky.
Links to this:
A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda < << Never even mentions OBL in the list. To top your LIE off with even better humor. (When has Obama went after senior members in Pakistan without using a drone? )
The MSNBC Propaganda machine even LIES referencing it's own spin. Keep up the fine work.
Now look at the U. S. casualties in Afghanistan under Barack Obama. Well over 70 Percent of TOTAL CASUALTIES IN the 11 YEAR AFGHANISTAN War in his ONE TERM.
http://icasualties.org/oef/
Besides, Bill Clinton should have killed OBL before 9-11 when he had the chance. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/former-cia-official-to-60-minutes-clinton-white-house-wouldnt-approve-bin-laden-kill/
Oh wait, that ruins the entire rest of your spin.