Correspondent's Dinner and Football Spiking

At tonight's White House Correspondent's Dinner (which your humble host sat through via feed in its entirety) Jimmie Kimmel mentioned the UBL raid right off the bat, which produced the most sheepish grin imaginable on the president's face.  He just can't hide the pride (and what it does to some on the right).

BTW, Kimmel tried to be fair in his roast and did hit Biden, Olbermann and a few other lefties (and made fun of the president's ears and eating of dog meat) but he also managed to thoroughly blast almost all the leading opponents including Mitt Romney, who was also the frequent target of the president's 'self deprecating' humor.

Before Kimmel took the state Obama got Trump pretty good and there was occasional hay made about birthers and socialism.  Kimmel told a fat joke at the expense of governor Christie--New Jersey is not called the "Olive Garden State" but he also said the North Koreans were sending Obama  'food aid' when making fun of the president's stick figure gait.  

But back to bin Laden.  There will be a blizzard of stories in the next few days explaining the gutsy call, many which will mention the negative nabobism from Biden and former defense sec Gates:

Gates has publicly acknowledged reservations. At the final April 28 White House meeting before the raid, Bergen says, Gates told Obama he would be “more comfortable” with “some kind of precision strike” rather than a commando raid.

This surgical strike business has always been perplexing.  Why would any president want to do a sudden secret explosion in the middle of Abbottabad, killing the most wanted terrorist in the world with no following media hoopla or explanations or proof or intel?  Well, it appears both Biden and Gates were worried about straining relations with the one state that has produced more terrorists than any other who also have nukes.  Perfectly sensible from a diplomatic standpoint.  Gates was basically advising a statesman's approach without fanfare.

Which was probably pondered all of 10 seconds by POTUS.  UBL was the most wanted man in the world and left a trail of American victims whose families needed closure.  To think any president would kill or capture him and not let the press know is unthinkable.  It certainly would have been less 'gutsy' though.

MORE  4/29/12

As we approach May Day, a celebration of the worldwide red movement and now the anniversary of the death of bin Laden, a few questions come to mind.  One, has anyone asked the president whether there was a plan to deal with UBL should he have been captured?  Early on in the explanations we were told the SEALS were prepared to capture the spiritual leader should he put up no resistance, so what was the plan? Wouldn't holding him at GITMO have inspired just as much terrorism as showing pictures of the bullet holes in his head?  How about interrogation?  What happened to the HIG?  And if Manhattan federal court was appropriate for the planner and facilitator of 9/11 (KSM) where would they have tried bin Laden?  

Meanwhile the Taliban are feeding western media BS about Zawahiri, who could be anywhere.  Z-man has always been the scarier of the two, pushing KSM and others to develop WMDs while bin Laden was busy talking to journalists in his hideouts.   What happens if we capture him?

JOKE'S ON HIM?   4/29/12 

Obama, now called the nation's chief entertainer by some in the press, has been criticized in the past for not engaging in the traditional self-deprecation and instead using the forum to score political points.   Although he was slightly more self-deprecating than normal last night (making fun of his hot mic moment using bathroom humor) most of his stuff was traditional, ie, partially designed to score political points.  The mock campaign commercial focused on Mitt and the dog, eventually showing a dog kennel strapped to the top of AF1.

Obama later made a joke about a dog being delicious but only in context to Palin's joke about the difference between a 'hockey mom and pit bull'.  Palin had said there was no difference aside from lipstick so when Obama said a 'pit bull is delicious' how many took that as making fun of eating dog and how many took it as an inference that Palin was a dog he was going to metaphorically eat?  And that's the problem with Obama's self-deprecation.  

Bottom line, he hit all his talking points: contraception, Mitt, birthers, distancing himself from the Secret Service and GSA scandals, Palin, and reminding everyone he got bin Laden and even Obamacare.  Mission accomplished.

YOU KNOW YOU'VE JUMPED THE SHARK..  4/30/12

...when as a liberal president you manage to shock even Arianna Huffington.  As much as I hate to admit it she's right--talking about getting UBL is fine, expected.  Saying your opponent wouldn't have taken him out, low-life and desperate.