Limbaugh mocks Obama for bin Laden hit

 

May 02, 2011

Posted by Keach Hagey 04:02 PM

Anyone under the illusion that America might actually be capable of a moment of national unity around the death of Osama bin Laden had that illusion squashed by Rush Limbaugh today.

The president’s chief detractor dangled the possibility of such a moment at the beginning of his show, kicking off with what seemed like an unequivocal compliment: “Ladies and gentlemen, we need to open the program today by congratulating President Obama. President Obama has done something extremely effective, and when he does, this needs to be pointed out.”

Many news outlets, including this one, initially took that compliment at face value. MSNBC led the news with it coming out of the White House briefing. Mediaite suggested it was a sign that we’d finally reached “9/12.” Eric Boehlert at Media Matters warned the sarcasm was missed. “He was clearly mocking POTUS,” he tweeted.

But then Limbaugh zeroed in the line in the president’s speech from last night in which he said he had assembled the team, using it to spin a sarcastic riff on how the president made this all about him.

“In fact, it may be that President Obama single-handedly came up with the technique in order to pull this off. You see, the military wanted to go in there and bomb like they always do. They wanted to go in there and drop missiles and launch bombs, a number of totally destructive techniques here. But President Obama, perhaps the only qualified member in the room to deal with this, insisted on the Special Forces.

No one else thought of that. Not a single intelligence advisor, not a single national security advisor, not a single military advisor came up with the idea of using SEAL Team 6 or any of the Special Forces.”

As the show wore on, Limbaugh’s compliment evolved into an accusation of hypocrisy. He argued that Osama bin Laden was captured because President Obama continued the Bush Administration policies of keeping the military in the Middle East, and, despite his efforts to the contrary, keeping Guantanamo open, where intelligence about the courier that led to bin Laden’s killing was gathered.

“This is why I say that I want to sincerely congratulate Obama,” Limbaugh said. “Despite his words, despite every indication he gave verbally of disassembling this because he wanted America to be respected again. Despite his promises and words to tear apart this team, he continued it. Obama does deserve to be congratulated for continuing the operations of this team and keeping the military presence in the Middle East.”

Media Matters – not known for seeking national unity themselves -- shone a spotlight on one clip in particular, in which Limbaugh suggested the hit on bin Laden had been a political act.

“If he was a shoo-in for re-election, Osama bin laden would still be alive today,” Limbaugh said. “There would have been no need to undertake the mission. And Donald Trump would have had no jokes told about him at the White House Correspondents Dinner, if Obama were such a shoo-in. But he’s not.”