Jack Shafer at Slate seems to think so. He says releasing the clip of Bin Laden channel-surfing through news reports about himself is exactly what Barack claims he wants to avoid:
In the middle of last week, President Obama told 60 Minutes he wasn’t releasing the Osama Bin Laden death photos because he saw no “need to spike the football.” Another reason, he said, was to deny to Bin Laden’s supporters the “propaganda tool” that “very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head” might present…
But if rendering the foe that you just exterminated as a washed-up, post-virile shut-in isn’t spiking the football, I don’t know what is. Had the president been honest on 60 Minutes, he would have said that the United States loves to spike the ball on its own terms—that is, when the spiking carries little risk of retaliation.
Shafer speculates that we’re sending a visual message to those who might be sympathetic to Bin Laden — “Check out the old, vain, washed-up couch potato” — whereas our intelligence guys think he was still in the terrorism game at the time of his death and was as dangerous as ever. Either way works for me, honestly, as long as his empty skull is now being used as some halibut’s toilet. This is one case where I don’t mind Barack lying to me. Spike all you like.
By the way, until everybody stops talking about this story, I’ll be referring to the President of the United States as “Barack” and the guy behind 9/11 as “Bin Laden.” Way too many people have been mixing up Obama’s first name and Osama’s last name. Wait, no, other way around. See what I mean?
And now, courtesy of Allahpundit, here’s the cutest sociopolitical commentary you’ll see all day:
Jake was my favorite one, up until that last part.
P.S. Every single one of those kids is smarter than Noam Chomsky.