Rove picks the wrong fight over OBL killing (updated) [View all]

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Last edited Thu Mar 22, 2012, 01:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Rove picks the wrong fight over OBL killing

By Steve Benen

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 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.

- more -

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/22/10811275-rove-picks-the-wrong-fight-over-obl-killing

David Axelrod Slams Karl Rove For Misleading On Osama Bin Laden Mission
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/david-axelrod-slams-karl-rove-for-misleading-on


Updated to add:

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Meanwhile, we'll respond with the truth. Like reminding Rove of his own administration's tragic failure to bring Osama bin Laden to justice:



And reminding him that in 2008, John McCain disagreed with Barack Obama's strategy for getting bin Laden—the strategy that ultimately worked, nearly a decade after Bush and Rove's failure. (Mitt Romney was on John McCain's side, by the way.)

But this isn't just about giving President Obama credit for bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. There's a lot of history that Rove, Romney, & Co. are going to try to erase between now and election day. It's the only way they can win.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/22/1076773/-Karl-Rove-says-killing-of-Osama-bin-Laden-not-a-major-achievement-for-President-Obama