(SEALs UPDATE) Putting the Cart Before the Hearse

UK Mail: SEALs slam Obama for using them as 'ammunition' in bid to take credit for bin Laden killing during election campaign

"It was ‘stretching a little much’ for Mr Obama to suggest only he would have made the decision. ‘I personally I don't think Romney would have any problem making tough decisions. He got a very accomplished record of making decision as a business professional. 

"‘He may not have charisma but he clearly has leadership skills. I don’t think he'd have any problem taking that decision.’"

...."We were extremely surprised and discouraged by the publicity because it compromises the ability of those guys to operate."  Via Drudge.

PowerLine says: " From this president, the least gracious, most lacking in class that I can recall, it certainly was predictable."

HopeNChangeCartoons.com   "Team Obama is doing everything short of carrying Osama's rotting, bullet-ridden head around on a pike in order to tell people that this bold and dangerous military mission could only have been pulled off by one man.
"And of course, that man is...Admiral McRaven.
"What - you thought Obama was behind everything? Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! No, no - as the photos from the situation room clearly show, Barry had to be dragged off a golf course the day of the mission so he could be photographed watching a computer monitor in the same room as a lot of grown-ups."

What "gutsy call"?  Panetta's memo:

The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.

"Only the memo doesn’t show a gutsy call. It doesn’t show a president willing to take the blame for a mission gone wrong. It shows a CYA maneuver by the White House.

"The memo puts all control in the hands of Admiral McRaven – the “timing, operational decision making and control” are all up to McRaven. So the notion that Obama and his team were walking through every stage of the operation is incorrect. The hero here was McRaven, not Obama. And had the mission gone wrong, McRaven surely would have been thrown under the bus."

The bravely brave Sir Barry

Much more on this in Sunday's Tunnel Wall