Don't think of the elephant in the room...

[kentuck]

This is basically what the Republicans are saying when they complain that President Obama is making the killing of Bin Laden "political". In effect, they are the ones making the issue political.

And they are doing it in a very sophisticated way. It has the fingerprints of Frank Luntz and/or Karl Rove all over it. They are playing psychological games with the American people.

By accusing the President of making it "political", it somehow minimizes the significance of his leadership and achievement. But the President doesn't have to make it political. Just the very fact that it happened makes it "political". That is a reality.

However, the Republicans are very adept at taking the most positive issues of their opponents and turning them into a negative. That is what they are attempting to do by accusing the President of being "political" about the anniversary of the killing of Bin Laden.

For example, if you say "Don't think of the turban on Mitt Romney's head", then you tend to think of the turban on Romney's head. That is the game the Republicans are playing. And they are very good at it.

Will it succeed? I doubt it, because this is a different time and people are more aware of the killing of Bin Laden than they were of John Kerry's Vietnam war record. I think the Republicans are too smart by half.

.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The "effectiveness" of the republican minimalization of OBL's assassination is also determined by

the rebuttal by the White House, democratic senators and congressional representative, and more important perhaps, the media. I would otherwise say it depends upon the electorate but these days, it's not exactly independent.

[DCKit]

4. One of our local (DC) Fox anchors did an interview this morning about this issue.

He didn't pull any punches regarding the hypocrisy of OBL vs. the 2004-2008 use of 9/11 as a campaign tool. It was a real pleasure to watch the NeoCon squirm.

[lunatica]

2. Last night I saw footage of the reaction of Americans in Washington DC the day

President Obama announced Bin Laden had been assassinated. Rachel Maddow happened to be there that night and the footage shows Americans going out into the streets around the White House celebrating and literally dancing in the streets. Lot's of them.

Most Americans are very pleased with Bin Laden's death. There are even those of us who feel quite ambivalent about it, only because we're glad (or at least relieved) he's actually dead. How he got dead is another matter.

The Republican tactics reached their golden age with Bush. Not so much anymore though. The social media took over the job of the news media while the Republicans weren't looking.

[quaker bill]

3. Time to reclaim the turf

Competence in office as President, regardless of how expressed is political, because it is a political office. If Bush had done a great job marshalling the forces and protecting the people from Hurricane Katrina, it would have been politically useful, and he would have used it.

He didn't do this job and his poll numbers sunk through the floor. It was a human tragedy, and I would like to say without precedent, but Republicans did this to New Orleans in 1927 as well. That said, it was also political, just really really bad politics.

It is a political job and every aspect of it is politics. Kings are exempt from politics, but we elect our leaders. It is actually a good thing that we fought hard for the right to do.