→2011→05→02→Editorial cartooning→Cartoonists react to announcement that Osama is dead
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  1. Ha. Bush didn’t capture or kill him so actually it’s all his doing!

  2. Ah, yes….the old “you opened the jar of peanut butter, but I ‘loosened’ it for you” angle.

  3. The sound the bullets made killing Osama?
    That’s what a second term sounds like…

  4. What about this Bush press conference response:

    “And, again, I don’t know where he is,” Bush said during the 2002 news conference. “I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.”

    The internet has a long memory and this cartoon is a crock.

  5. I feel safer now. I hear they’re going to let us drink water in airplanes again. It’s a new era.

  6. 1. Obama Announces Re-Election bid.
    2. Obama produces long-lost Birth Certifiate.
    3. Bin Laden mysteriously found and killed.
    I’m just saying.

  7. This cartoon is nonsense, in my opinion. Bush took his eye off the ball in Afghanistan. He borrowed a trillion dollars from China to invade Iraq, squandered the blood & treasure of the USA on an occupation of that country…how does that constitute doing 95% of the work involved in getting Bin Laden?

  8. Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

  10. Keith @ “#6: Seriously? If the US had had a true bead on the man, he’d have been dead as soon as they were certain (or as close as you can get to being certain in situations like this). Even Bush wouldn’t have been stupid enough to postpone for the best PR.

  11. They only shot him twice? I was hoping for 2998 more. (It’s hard out here for a “Deather”.)

  12. Wouldn’t a ‘deather’ be someone who thinks Barack Obama is a zombie?

    (tm)

  13. I heard he actually died in Kenya in 1961. 😀

  14. 95%….??

    Never let the facts get in the way of a good cartoon…

  15. It’s easy to make a touch down when you are standing in the end zone and someone throws you the ball.

  16. How many cartoonists (and tweets) used the joke about Trump wanting to see Osama’s death certificate?

  17. “It?s easy to make a touch down when you are standing in the end zone and someone throws you the ball.”

    Good point. Since you only did 5% of the work for this cartoon topic that was handed to you by Obama, I’ll blame him for how bad it is.

  20. Mike: I love ya, man — but if Obama was water you wouldn’t give his credit for being wet.

  21. Mike, that article seems to ignore a few things. First, that the order was given Friday for a Saturday operation, but it was postponed because of weather conditions. So, yes, the tension was off on Saturday.

    Also, from what I’ve read, despite Cheney’s assumptions, the info gained at Guantamano was obtained after the extreme interrogation techniques were outlawed and the CIA was moved out. Yes, that was still under Bush’s administration, but the fact is, according to reports, that they didn’t have good idea that this was the location until August of last year. They started building the compound 5 years or so ago, and kept adding to it. We still don’t know how long he’d been living there or even if he’d been living there on and off.

    None of this means that Bush took it 95% of the way there. Neither does it mean that Obama deserves most of the credit. We all know it was a long process. But Obama has been in office for nearly 2-1/2 years, approximately half the time intel services were on the trail that led to the killing of bin Laden.

    As for the “gutsy” part–politically, it was. I think that’s what they were talking about. He had announced his intentions for re-election. Remember what happened to Carter? He ordered a rescue of the Iranian hostages during the campaign in 1980, which failed catastrophically, and cemented his loss.

    I have heard a number of references to the brave SEALS who participated. Of course, we can’t hear from the SEALS. It’s SOP that they aren’t displayed in public. That’s part of the whole “black ops” thing. They’re not supposed to be identified. Pastis was almost assaulted by a British black ops guy in a Chinook in Afghanistan when he unknowingly took a photo in his direction. I met a black ops guy in Afghanistan, who was the nicest guy while I was talking to him in private, but out in public you weren’t even supposed to acknowledge his presence if you passed him.

  22. Mike; Barry Switzer gets credit for the quote, “Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple”. I don’t imagine he was talking about a guy whose father was a goat herder from Kenya, or did you mean Box Home Office?

  24. John, you’re right. I’m not only a lousy cheerleader I’m too stupid to know it’s my job.

    Rick, I was referring to the headline: “Osama bin Laden dead: Yes, SEALs were in on the raid, but aides hail Obama’s office bravery”. -wow. That’s some serious third base awarding right there.

  25. It’s funny the first reaction to Osama’s death is “I have to make sure the president doesn’t gain from this”. Yes, take your eyes off the victory for the United States, liberals, conservatives, all of us. So much for United We Stand.

    I don’t think we should even go the other way with it by trying to make sure Bush doesn’t get any credit. We probably wouldn’t have found him this soon if we had scrapped all of our pre-Obama intel and started over. So yay, Bush!

    Obama made the call. He made the decision to send our guys, the best there is, into a foreign and hostile country (despite being allies). To try to dismantle him over this shows your lack of credibility and that all future criticism from you is to be taken lightly.

    But hey, good job not drawing one of those lame eagle cartoons.

  26. Bors, Nick, Clay, remind us again which magazine it was that named you one of its influential people? The name escapes me.

  27. “I think this is real. If so, journalism is deader than I thought.”

    I agree that journalism is in trouble when newspapers give their imprimatur to these nonsensical blogs. I remember back when editors and publishers took some responsibility for what appeared under their banner.

    The LATimes blogs are basically supermarket tabloid dreck, only the topic is national politics instead of how much weight different starlets have gained and what couples are getting a SHOCKING divorce. However much they make me shudder for the state of journalism, however, they make me shudder far more for the quality of education when anybody cites them as a source.

  28. Mike Lester, you’re most likely on team “Blame Barry” (haven’t seen any by you like Fairrington’s), and I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with you on anything, but I think the cartoons you’ve done on this have actually been quite good and you’re one of my favorite cartoonists, not “conservative” cartoonists, out of ALL cartoonists.

    Unfortunately I have very little influence so I won’t be able to convince anyone to share my admiration.

  29. “However much they make me shudder for the state of journalism, however, they make me shudder far more for the quality of education when anybody cites them as a source.” -M.Peterson

    I’m not educated enough to understand this sentence but I think you just told me I was stupid. If I’m mistaken, it’s because it’s a poorly constructed sentence.

    Thanks Clay. I thought it was less than sporting for professional ed. cartoonists to publicly trash Fairrington. I think Alan just happened to pick that cartoon by chance. So, if you don’t like it, fine. But it seemed disrespectful, an attack on a guy who knows how hard YOUR job is and I’m pretty sure it’s something he would never do.

  30. For the record, Fairrington’s cartoon was the first one on Cagle’s page, so I grabbed it. No promotion of one ideology was intended.

    I’ll try harder in the future to more benign ones like the Statue of Liberty weeping (or in this case doing a yea haw?).

  31. “Bors, Nick, Clay, remind us again which magazine it was that named you one of its influential people? The name escapes me.”

    Not influential, Mike. Sexiest.

    We can thrash the president and other powerful figures, but colleagues are off limits because they we may hurt their feelings by poking fun at the gaping holes in their logic? I assume Fairrington is a big boy. No one gets to put their opinions out there for a living and remain free from criticism.

  32. I’m sure Fairrington’s is at the top because that’s where Daryl Cagle put it. Gary McCoy also did one in the same context.

    My issue isn’t with the cartoons themselves and it’s definitely not the cartoonists as they’ve both been drinking buddies. It’s the timing. If you draw one now, I won’t care. But the zealotry of Obama hatred at a historic moment for the United States is disproportionate to the issue itself. After a decade of hunting, the USA kills the mastermind of 9/11, which contributed to the deaths of over 3,000 people and the FIRST thing you come up with is “I hate Obama”?

    I disagree with ya, Mike about criticizing specific cartoons. Cartoonists can take it. I wouldn’t engage in a campaign against a cartoonist.

  33. The title of this section should be changed to “Cartoonists React to Cartoonists Reacting to Announcement the Osama is Dead.”

  34. I love it when editorial cartoonists gang up on each other here in the name of advancing their own brand of political indoctrination.

    Whether you agree with Fairrington/s cartoon or not, it made its point well and graphically.

    Those who want to take their partisan shots at Brian’s ‘toon might as well try for a stint either on MSNBC’s Maddow/O’Donnell/Matthews Hour or Fox’s Hannity/O’Reilly/Beck Show.

    The kind of colleague bashing over individual political views I see on this site is usually reserved for our readers who write to trash us for not agreeing with them. Looks like it has become infectious.

    Steve Benson
    The Arizona Republic

  35. “I?m not educated enough to understand this sentence but I think you just told me I was stupid. If I?m mistaken, it?s because it?s a poorly constructed sentence.” — Mike Lester

    I wish it meant that. No, I shudder for the state of our educational system because bright people have never been taught how to evaluate sources. This is obviously an extremely subjective blog, not because of what he says but because of the derision in his language. That should prompt you to (A) look more critically at what he actually said, (B) question his authority to analyze what he’s saying and (C) look at what else he has written.

    You’re bright enough, Mike, that if you did that, you’d realize this is just some guy spouting off, with no particular knowledge of what he’s writing about and with a strong agenda to push. And I’d expect a bright person to look at Michael Moore the same way. A good education doesn’t teach you what to think, but it ought to teach you how to analyze material, and we’ve got too many people who look only for things to reinforce their existing prejudices and don’t care if it’s coming from Jane Fonda or Sarah Palin or Abbie Hoffman or Father Coughlin as long as it makes them feel righteous.

    (Outrageous overstatement is, of course, a bulwark of cartooning. But in that arena, too, one learns to tell the amusing commentators from the kneejerk extremists.)

  36. I agree with Milt, it should be more like 96%.

    especially given:

    http://socyberty.com/issues/white-house-insider-obama-hesitated-panetta-issued-order-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/4/

    Think about the things we know about Obama…months to decide on the surge in Afghanistan then not giving the Military the troops asked for…

    holding the military pay hostage last month

    insisting on “TRIALS” FOR terrorist prisoners, why order a shoot to kill order on Bin Laden ? (he was unarmed)

    Hillary it was reported last week was not traveling…which was unusual for her…it fits with the link…

    Don’t let the truth get in the way guys. Problem is we don’t know the truth…or like Nicholson said…you can’t handle the truth.

  37. Truther: crazy who believes 9/11 gov. conspiracy dropped WTC.
    Birther: crazy who questions BHO’s birth place. Combover makes them easy to spot in the wild.
    Racer: the latest crazy who believes any criticism of BHO is because he’s black. If you can tell me what $5 gasoline, Government Motors, unemployment rate, etc. have to do w/ race, I’m all ears and according to Mr. Peterson “bright enough”. (And people like me, doggone it)

    Benson: you’re right. Just like reader mail.
    Bors: you’re right, you are sexy and Brian’s a big boy. But on one thread you object to a post (donna Lewis) yet post the exact self-apointed arbiter of logic and taste here? Why you don’t have chronic hiccups is a mystery.
    Nick: “Zing”??? -what’s next “SNAP!”?
    Clay: I haven’t been happier w/ POTUS since he took office. The man has become Bush/Patton and Olive Oyl over night. Bravo!
    Ted: where are you? Troops need you.

  38. “…not intended to be a factual statement.”

  39. “Bors: you?re right, you are sexy and Brian?s a big boy. But on one thread you object to a post (donna Lewis) yet post the exact self-apointed arbiter of logic and taste here? Why you don?t have chronic hiccups is a mystery.”

    The post in the other thread was a joke. I found it funny that Mike uses the Time magazine logo for his graphic and wanted to point it out. I don’t care what he was arguing about.

  40. “LIBERAL CARTOONISTS REACT TO CONSERVATIVE CARTOONIST’S ANNOUNCEMENT THAT OSAMA IS DEAD”

    Horrors! How dare bad, bad Brian have drawn that!

    🙂

    Steve Benson
    Arizona Republic

  41. I think the “Racers” outnumber the “Birthers” about a thousand to one, judging from the comments on just about any article about Obama, etc…

    Of course, the “Racers” have had many decades to work their dogma to a fine froth… 😉

  42. This cartoon is spot on!

    …if the 95%to 5% is a reflection of the money that each president spent to get the job done.

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