Reply #9: It's not their fault - this is how they get crowds and they just think that is always what is done

[karynnj]

Seriously, their comments are so baseless and silly - they insult the intelligence of the country. Those comments are also tone deaf. What I fear more is the media's already constant replay of Bush with the Firemen - as if that photo op led directly to last night's statement. I can't help but think that they are intentionally trying to create a mental link between the two - even though there is no real connection. (I bet they won't play the Bush comment that capturing or killing OBL was not something he thought of much.)

This will likely be the way every Republican plays this - rather than just saying that it is a moment that goes beyond politics.

The lesser MA Senator, Scott Brown commends both Obama and Bush for this.

"I commend President Obama, former President Bush and the highly capable men and women in our military and intelligence community whose tireless work over the last decade made this day possible," Brown said in a statement, adding that bin Laden "finally the justice he deserved."

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/osama_bin_laden_is_dead_but_th.html

Though the US has been looking for 10 years, there is no reason to think anything done years ago led to this. In fact, if it was - as reported a Pakistani who gave the US the tip, it is likely more due to the relationship that Obama has fought hard to have with the fragile Pakistani government. It may well have been that the Kerry/Biden/Hagel plan hatched when they were grounded in the mountains of Afghanistan that became Kerry/Lugar (after it started as Biden/Lugar) that was significant. Kerry/Lugar was a US effort to help create a relationship of helping the Pakistani people, not the government. It was a cost that may have paid off - and the timing may be important as if it helped it will be easier to defend.

That aid coupled with the contacts by the Obama administration to Pakistan's military and everyone in the Pakistani government that might be behind this success. It was Obama using every tool - from international intelligence to special forces with a lot of diplomacy involved. Remembering back to 2004, this was how Kerry described how the war on terror should be fought. This what not what Bush was doing.