Exactly eight years to the day after President Bush strapped on his best codpiece and stood in front of a banner declaring, "Mission Accomplished," President Obama stepped up to the podium in the East Room of the White House and announced that the mission had actually been accomplished.
The announcement capped an extraordinary week for Obama, and marked the fulfillment of another one of his campaign promises.
Although the news of Osama bin Laden's death signaled the biggest victory to date in America's "War on Terror," not everyone was happy about it.
Members of the Bush administration worried that their boss wasn't getting enough credit, and right-wing patriots lamented the fact that they'd have to find new reasons to hate President Obama.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden (Ret.); Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R); Roundtable: Bob Woodward (Washington Post), Katty Kay (BBC), Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and Republican Strategist Mike Murphy.
Face the Nation: Sen. John Kerry (D-MA); Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
This Week: National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani; Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Roundtable: George Will (Washington Post), Sociopath Liz Cheney, Tom Ricks (Foreign Policy) and Lawrence Wright (New Yorker).
Fox News Sunday: National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; Former Vice President Dick Cheney (R); Roundtable: Bill Kristol (Weekly Standard), Mara Liasson (NPR/FNC), Paul Gigot (Wall Street Journal) and Juan Williams (Fox News).
State of the Union: National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN); NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen; Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA); Former White House Aide Anita Dunn; Reliable Sources: Jamie McIntyre (LineOfDeparture.com); Peter Baker (New York Times); American University Professor Jane Hall; GWU Professor Frank Sesno; Brian Ross (ABC News); Matt Lewis (Daily Caller); Dana Milbank (Washington Post); Former State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley.
The Chris Matthews Show: Helene Cooper (New York Times); Rick Stengel (TIME); David Ignatius (Washington Post); Elisabeth Bumiller (New York Times).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden (Ret.); Richard N. Haass (Council on Foreign Relations); Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani; Jugnu Mohsin(Friday Times).
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: President Obama's first interview since ordering the covert military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden (preview).
On Comedy Central:
Jon Stewart reacted to the news that Osama bin Laden had been hiding right under the nose of the Pakistani military.
The Daily Show
Monday: Actress Keira Knightley
Tuesday: Actor Will Ferrell
Wednesday: Actor/Director Albert Brooks
Thursday: Comedian Kristen Wiig
And Stephen Colbert was outraged about President Obama politicizing Bin Laden's death by virtue of being the President who order his killing.
The Colbert Report
Monday: Rapper Lupe Fiasco
Tuesday: Author Geoffrey Rush
Wednesday: Author James Stewart
Thursday: Author John Bradshaw
Elsewhere:
A trio of Republican Senators were duped by a fake Bin Laden death photo.
Three senators who claimed to have seen a photograph of bin Laden's post-mortem are now backtracking, or flat out admitting they were duped.
One of the senators is a key decision-maker on national security issues. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said earlier today that he had seen a photo of a slain bin Laden, describing it in some detail without casting any doubt on its authenticity. But sure enough, he now admits he saw a fake. [...]
Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), also had to correct a statement he gave to NECN today about seeing bin Laden photographs. In a statement, NECN said the photographs Brown told the network he saw "were not authentic."
Earlier Wednesday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) told TPM that she also saw a photograph of bin Laden's corpse. She said at the time she could not verify the photograph but that "another senator showed it to me and usually that's a good source." But when we contacted her this afternoon, she told us the image she saw was not "official."
And in other news:
Aside from Osama bin Laden, there was perhaps no bigger loser this week than Donald Trump, who suffered numerous indignities.
First he got roasted to the brink of charring by President Barack Obama and "Saturday Night Live" comedian Seth Meyers at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night.
Then, folks east of the Colorado River who tuned in to NBC’s "Celebrity Apprentice" Sunday night didn’t see Trump recite his famous "You’re fired!" closing line. Instead, they watched the president inform the nation that Osama bin Laden had been killed.
Third on the list was the announcement by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that Trump wouldn’t be driving the pace car at the Indy 500 this month. The Donald said he had to drop out due to "time and business constraints," but few seemed to buy that excuse. Some wondered if he forgot how to drive after having a chauffeur for so long. Others speculated that he pulled out because he was worried about his hair blowing in the wind. And then there were the 18,000+ fans who joined the "We Don't Want Donald Trump to Drive the Indy 500 Pace Car" Facebook group. They objected, in part, to Trump’s "recent descent into the 'birther' movement." (It was announced Friday that four-time Indy winner AJ Foyt will drive the pace car instead.)
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Luckily, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is on the case.
It wasn't long ago that Charlie Crist was reputed to be on the short list of vice presidential candidates, followed by the time he was supposed to be a shoo-in for a U.S. Senate seat from Florida.
But the rise of the Teahadist right has been especially tough on Crist, who went from visionary Republican superstar to a guy who now appears on TV commercials chumming up slip-and-fall lawsuits for a personal injury firm based in Orlando.
"I'm Charlie Crist," our former governor says in the Morgan & Morgan ad. "If you need help sorting out your legal issues as a result of an accident or insurance dispute, visit me at Charlie@forthepeople.com"
You can't outrun the long arm of the law.
- Trix