Randi Rhodes: Gotcha!

Well, Osama bin Laden is dead. The only question now is how long it will take for Donald Trump to claim credit and tell everyone how proud he is. What a busy week for President Obama—having to come up with his birth certificate and kill Osama bin Laden, all in the space of a couple of days. Talk about multi-tasking! This mission was impeccably timed. I like the fact that they gave Prince William and Kate Middleton time to have the spotlight before proceeding. The only way President Obama could have timed this any more perfectly would have been if the announcement had interrupted the climax of the season finale of Donald Trump’s “Apprentice.”

It turns out Osama bin Laden wasn’t living in a cave. He was living in the suburbs. We didn’t know his whereabouts, but he was probably getting catalogues from Crate & Barrel. The place was huge, but had no phone or internet service. Why no internet service? Obviously Osama bin Laden was worried that if he had the opportunity, he couldn’t resist joining Facebook. If bin Laden was on Facebook, it would have been a lot easier to track him down. Unless he was one of those idiots who just post way too much stuff, in which case everybody including the CIA would have blocked him.

The announcement drew spontaneous cheering crowds outside the White House and at New York’s Ground Zero. For once in recent years, there were crowds of Americans who weren’t shouting at each other. Sadly a lot of politicians were not beyond partisanship. Rick Santorum gave credit to “all those involved.” And that’s about the most specific mention of President Obama that any Republican was willing to make. Mitt Romney wouldn’t even mention President Obama by name, thanking “our intelligence community, our military and the president.” Great. Even when he tracks down and kills Osama bin Laden, Romney won’t admit that President Obama is our President.

This was described as a “surgical raid.” In that case, it had to be done by President Obama. If it was under a Republican administration, the whole “surgical raid” would have been rejected because they would have ruled that Osama bin Laden was a pre-existing condition.

Today’s Homework | Discuss