10 Ways the Right Is Spinning Bin Laden’s Death


Earlier today, the impossible seemed to happen when Rush Limbaugh suggested that President Barack Obama “single-handedly” devised the plan to successfully assassinate Osama Bin Laden. Though many in the media took Limbaugh seriously, he was actually being sarcastic. Here are 10 other ways that right-wing pundits and bloggers have tried to spin the Al Qaeda leader’s killing into a joke, a trifle, or even a triumph of conservatism:

1. American Spectator Senior Fellow Chris Horner: The death of Bin Laden is a blow to supporters of cap and trade. (In January, OBL expressed concern about climate change).


 

 

 

 

 

2. Human Events editor Jason Mattera: Remember how Michele Obama isn’t supposed to be patriotic?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.  RedState blogger Streiff: Flaky liberals hate that bin Laden is dead. 

Presumably Code Pink will hold a “Take Back the Night” march some place to mourn his passing.

Bonus: Obama’s decision to use military force to take out Bin Laden exposes his “ambivalence” about military force.

The death of bin Laden is more likely to give impetus to Obama’s ambivalence about the concept of “victory” and his deep-seated hostility to the success of American military power and thereby give him the political cover he feels he needs to speed up troop withdrawals from those countries.

 

4. WorldNetDaily contributor Mychal Massie: Maybe Obama deserves to be assassinated, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Washington Times editorial page editor Brett Decker: For self-centered Obama, “everything is about him.”

He used the words “I,” “me” and “my” so many times that it was hard to count for such a quick message.

6.  Eric Bolling, host of Fox’s Follow the Money: Bush, not Obama, really deserves the credit. No wait—I forgot someone…



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Bryan Fischer, host of the American Family Association’s Focal Point radio show:

The death of Bin Laden is a “major PR problem for President Obama.” (Why? “You have just invited the entire Islamic world to focus all of their vitriol, all of their hatred, all of their animosity directly on you!”)

 

8. Atlas Shrugged contributor Pamela Geller: Her sources say that Al Qaeda is actually small peanuts compared to the terrorists who have already infiltrated the US government

Many of us already realize that the Muslim Brotherhood is the much more insidious threat than AQ. . .they are advising our senior leaders and have access to all levels of our government and national security apparatus.

9. Gateway Pundit contributor Jim Hoft: The discovery and killing of Bin Laden justify the use of torture.

 

10. J. Michael Waller, on Andrew Breitbart’s website, Big Peace: Show us the death certificate!

The free world, particularly the United States, has a right to make sure that Osama Bin Laden is really dead. 

 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate