REPORT: Bush Thinks Obama is "Taking All the Credit" for bin Laden

Why did former President George W. Bush decline the White House invitation to attend today's ceremony at the World Trade Center site? Bush believes it is a public relations stunt and Obama is "taking all the credit" for finding and killing Osama bin Laden, reports the New York Daily News.

"[Bush] viewed this as an Obama victory lap," a highly-placed source told the Daily News Wednesday. Bush's visit to the rubble after the 9/11 attacks was the emotional high point of his presidency, but associates say the invitation to return with his successor was a non-starter.

"He doesn't feel personally snubbed and appreciates the invitation, but Obama's claiming all the credit and a lot of other people deserve some of it," the source added. "Obama gave no credit whatsoever to the intelligence infrastructure the Bush administration set up that is being hailed from the left and right as setting in motion the operation that got Bin Laden. It rubbed Bush the wrong way."

Bush issued a congratulatory statement to Obama shortly after Sunday's television address.

"Obama campaigned on a promise to capture and kill the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks and revived the search for Bin Laden after it had lapsed during the Bush presidency," reports Think Progress. "That hasn’t kept conservatives from offering the former president praise while virtually ignoring Obama."

If GWB is looking to take more "credit" for something, how about the recession, the credit and mortgage market meltdown and two trillion dollar wars? And that's just to start.

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Comments

[Joe B.]

As usual, they say they want credit but when you ask them to detail what they've done to deserve that credit they just shrug and then complain more.

[The other guy]

I am sure that if this mission had gone wrong, they would want NO credit whatsoever. That's what gets me with the whole thing. It would have been all his damn fault then ...

[Jim]

“Bush believes it is a public relations stunt...

Of course, he’s right. It IS for publicity. And how about “Mission Accomplished” and that absurd jump suit Bush wore on the aircraft carrier?

It is pretty funny for Bush to dismiss anyone else for committing a public relations stunt.

[Derrick from Philly]

Thank you, Jim. They should've never asked him to come. Let him keep his flat azz down in Texas. Let that nice lady he's married to come to New York in his place...what's her name again? Barbara?

[GBM and GOP]

Really Rod? Really?

Two hateful Republican bashing stories in a row. You're running out of material, sweety.

[Kenneth]

What other reasons would Bush have for those sentiments besides jealousy or bitterness, when he famously stated only 6 months after 9/11 that he didn't know where Bin Laden was, nor cared?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PGmnz5Ow-o

[Byron Monte]

hey, memo to "GBM and GOP": no worries sweety, he won't be running out of material anytime soon with your party of choice acting their usual dumb selfs.

[Antonio]

If anyone would be honest for minute, Bush has a point. They didn't start looking for Osama 2 years ago. A lot of men and women have spent the last 10 years looking for him. It was Bush and Cheney policies that laid the intelligence foundation. So both Obama and Bush deserve credit. Now let's move on, he's dead.

[Brien]

No Antonio and GBM, we will not move on. Not until guys like you wake up and face reality. Don't trivialize what Obama has been able to do despite pundits like you whimpering all the time about his presidency. Trust, if your blood hound Bush had any inkling on how/where Osama was, there'd be catastrophic bloodshed. It must be a difficult time for the both of your trolling the internet tryna find like minded fools at a time like this! Good luck. Hell yeah, I'm angry. Angry that folks who have the gall to say Sarah Palin is their leader would even venture to offer an opinion outside of a barn.

[Fred]

Bush did start it but Obama finished it. I don't have any problems with giving a little credit to Bush. Obama did invite him to the ceremony at Ground Zero and he declined. Oh well......moving along.

[Osiris]

Whatever. This is NYDN's way of either getting publicity based off of a rumor or a way for Bush to keep his own name out of the limelight, in light of 2012.

It must be quite a high to work at the top of the news game for those media folks. You really can control people's thoughts and feelings just on a few words pulled out of thin air.

[Distant Lover]

You want the credit, then dDO THE WORK! Bush and Cheney were much too busy looting the country and bombing the shyt outta Saddam than to look for the real culprits. I didn't see Bush or Cheney in the Situation Room when they were getting Osama. Bush's policies were ineffective and self serving. If you believe otherwise, then you are either a fool or you think everyone else is.

[Tyler]

Antonio: Bush doesn't "have a point." Bush had 7 years to find Bin Laden. Bush said less than a year after 9/11 that it "wasn't important."

You (and the GOP) can't have it both ways. You can't blame Obama for the outrageous recession that Bush created in his first term ... but insist on crediting Bush for Obama's intelligence success 2 years after he left the WH.

Bush was invited to WTC and could have shared the stage. He chose not to, wisely imho. Bush and the GOP needs to get over it.

Oh and OBL was found in a suburb of the Pakistani capital hiding in plain sight. Not cute a cave in Bora Bora. It remains to be seen what Pakistan knew and what the Bush White House knew.

[soulbrotha]

Exhibit A thru Z:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PGmnz5Ow-o

Case closed.

P.S. The name Bush and the word "intelligence" should never be uttered in the same sentence.

[Byron Monte]

tyler, it was tora bora..i would have chosen to hide in bora bora over tora bora any day though. lol

[Diva1961]

I do agree that Bush may have put the foundation in place regarding looking for OBL, however, if we are to really be honest with ourselves (as paraphrased from above), when Bush decided and told the public that OBL was no longer the issue, but that Hussain was, he basically withdrew his military, financial, and personal focus.

Instead Bush focused on the oil wells of Iraq, which was the first thing he ordered the military to defend, not the citizens. That right there showed his intentions. I followed this very closely at that time. The news was all about defending the oil wells and what Bush/Cheney had in store for those. Bush never had a plan for what to do with people of the country once they were "liberated".

He wanted revenge for Hussain almost killing his father, and also to cover up the fact there were no WMDs. To say he deserves so much credit after so many flaws in this war that he started for all the wrong reasons, is crazy. He focused all his resources on these issues, not OBL. So let us really be honest with ourselves shall we?
p.s. GBM, the truth hurts so I guess that is when it bashing, huh?

[KGC]

@Tyler: You pulled the thought straight out of my head!

It's funny that nobody is mentioning the fact that Obama has inherited, and taken responsibility for, the economic recession that has been a direct result of the Bush administration. As a matter of fact, that economic responsibility was passed on much too easily, with republicans braying about Obama not doing enough for the economy, all the while conveniently forgetting that Bush put us all in this mess! I didn't see Bush running to take credit for that!

Now that Osama has been killed on Obama's watch, we're seeing shade from that old Texan queen. I swear, it's unbelieveable!

As "The other guy" said...had this turned into a disaster, and the US had suffered another terroist attack (God forbid), Bush would be quiet as a mouse down in Texas, and Obama would have been the scapegoat.