Those on the left have been savaging the right for downplaying the success of the risky raid approved by President Obama that led to the successful killing of Osama bin Laden. But some of the left-wingers are getting a free ride in this orgy of Monday morning quarterbacking.
At realclearpolitics, they point out that ex-commentator Keith Olbermann, who was dumped from MSNBC, slammed the special ops unit that managed this daring mission just two years ago.
Reacting to some comments by liberal author Seymour Hersch, Olbermann commented on MSNBC in 2009 that former vice president Dick Cheney had formed a “secret assassination ring” under his pervue. As if this special ops group was led in morning exercises each day by “Darth Vader” Cheney.
Well, Olbermann did a sharp about-face the other day on his web site, which he calls the “FOK News Channel” (ugh), when he referred to this commando unit as “those Americans who bravely hunted and searched, no matter who was in charge, (and) deserve our humble thanks right now.”
Olbermann, who is scheduled to make his next debut on some obscure cable TV channel, also went way overboard, as is his track record, in glorifying Obama. Apparently, in the space of the 40 minutes that the raid in Pakistan encompassed, the president had risen to unforeseen heights as a warrior commander-in-chief.
Olbermann said early Monday morning that Obama’s “supposedly weak” national security credentials had been instantly wiped away.
“In point of fact,” he added, “as of tonight his national security/counter-terrorism credentials probably jumped to No. 4 on the all-time presidential list, just behind Lincoln, FDR, and Madison.”
