An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right
White House Says bin Laden Capture Is “Success That Hasn’t Occurred Yet”
May we respectfully use the words “beyond belief”?
TPM Muckraker reports that a White House spokesperson has effectively declared Osama bin Laden’s capture a “success” — even though he has not been captured yet.
Here’s the quote they used, citing CNN’s White House correspondent Ed Henry questioning Frances Fragos Townsend:
HENRY: You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we’re going to get him. Still don’t have him. I know you are saying there’s successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That’s a failure.TOWNSEND: Well, I’m not sure — it’s a success that hasn’t occurred yet. I don’t know that I view that as a failure.
Aside from how this underlines the fact that this White House that will never, ever EVER really admit that it has not succeeded in a highly touted goal, this pushes evaluations into a new realm.
For instance:
- To Dennis Kucinich: Your campaign for President is a success that hasn’t occurred yet.
- To Bob Dole: Throw out the Viagra. The evenings are successes that…(NEVER MIND…)
- To college students flunking courses: You’re a Dean’s List success that hasn’t occurred yet.
- To President George W. Bush: Your presidency is a success that hasn’t occurred yet.
8 Responses to “White House Says bin Laden Capture Is “Success That Hasn’t Occurred Yet””
Nice to see they are so upbeat in the face of grim reality!:)
Your last example concerning the Bush view of his administration is not a joke – he repeatedly says thats what will happen down the road in historic terms.
Mon Dieu! It’s the Simpsons! “A stranger’s just a friend you haven’t met!” (from Streeetcar!)
I think I sprained something in my brain trying to comprehend this one.
It is strange wording, but I think you’re all jumping on it too quickly.
I think what Townsend was really trying to say is that we haven’t permanently failed in the goal, it just hasn’t happened yet. They might still do it someday, I guess, and I think that’s what he was saying.
I’m all for accountability, but let’s be reasonable. All he said was a strangely-worded “we haven’t succeeded but we still could do so.”
I think he failed that mission at the point he pulled intelligence and special forces out of the Afghan theater to use in Iraq. He was all talk on the matter and had other ambitions on his mind.
Someday Osama will step into the wrong Burger King and get snagged, but it will be through no fault of this administration.
I did too until I realized you had to take reality out of the equation to actually comprehend that quote lol
Andrew Quinn- I guess we’ll have to wait for Osama to die as a free man to claim true failure. Well, you could spin it that we drove him to his death by having to live in hiding for years on end.:)