"ask osama bin laden." republicans don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing the president of the united states on foreign policy. and i can't wait to see mitt or newt try this garbage when they share the stage with the president during the 2012 debates, whoever gets to. to quote a former president, bring it on. president obama also took on senate republicans for blocking his choice for the consumer financial protection agency. senator bernie sanders has reaction to the vote. and the gop obstruction strategy is next. >>> and later, this is a huge story that america needs to pay attention to. there are four cities in the state of michigan that have been taken over by city managers because of new legislation in the state of michigan. detroit will be next. if the lawmakers can help it, they'll try to stop it. stay with us. we'll be right back. >>> i just want to send a message to the senate. we are not giving up on this. we are going to keep on going at it. we are not going to allow politics as

obama ordered the mission that killed osama bin laden. got bin laden. hannity's pal, w., gave up on finding bin laden six months after 9/11. >> i don't know where he is, nor -- i just don't spend that much time on him to be honest with you. we hadn't heard much from him, and i wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. and, you know, again, i don't know where he is. i -- i -- i repeat what i said. i truly am not that concerned about him. >> bush wasn't concerned, but his administration was. they said letting bin laden slip through their fingers in tora bora in late 2001, was their, quote, gravest error in the war against al qaeda. by 2006, they all gave up and closed the cia unit in charge of hunting bin laden. it took president obama to refocus on the mission by doing things his way. and how did that thing work out again? >> ask osama bin laden and the 22 out of 30 top al qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field. >> bingo. for sean hannity to say we wouldn't have gotten bin laden if obama had gotten his w

getting osama bin laden or toppling qaddafi? keeping the promise to end the war in iraq? or on a more 450u78 -- human level, his very moving speesm after gabby giffords was shot? >> it's easy to spay qaddafi but i'm going bin laden. it was a risk. and a policy that is going to define what future presidents do -- chris: lead from behind? >> no. in a bigger way it was as big a gamble and maybe bigger than -- >> and hillary clinton and susan rice -- >> no doubt, the woman of the foreign policy team had a lot to do with it but this is also about when the united states signs a pact to be an ally with a country like france and great britain and we always ask them to be with america when they go there, this was a case when we needed to stand with them. chris: very interesting. you had an expression there, i don't know if it was dismay or what it was.s. >> it was surprise. because the libyar conflict lasted so much longer than people expected, because it tied up american spors -- forces and money at a time when the country was just not willing to enter another conflict and i thin

this is my hardest ones of all of the ones we're going to look at and it's a toss-up for me between osama bin laden and iraq. i go with bin laden because it was a kind of nothing but good news moment for the president. when he was able to say this, and -- competent execution and also inoculates him against any criticism, we have seen him use it, that he is in any way soft on terrorism. >> first of all, i love chuck gave credit to the women on the team. >> i prompted him to do that. >> it is true. they did bring him into this. chris: famously so. >> i'm not turning over the floor here by the way. i do have something to say. i agree with both of you. it is a hard question because so many of these are important. but the three foreign policy ones are really part of this obama way of doing things. and i think -- i don't know, osama bin laden is an easy choice but it's -- chris: the chicago way? >> it's kind of the cool and lacking and chest beating way, you know what i'm saying? chris: your candidate would be -- >> wouldn't invade another muslim country when we got with libya. and on osama bin lad

. >> the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden.me has come to an end. to nearly nine years of america's war in iraq will be over. welcome home. welcome home! >> wow! winning! >> in sickness and in health. >> we the jury find the defendant not guilty so say we all. >> and lift off! space shuttle spreads its wings one final time. >> steve jobs, the founder and driving force behind apple technology will be remembered as one of the country's greatest innovators. >> we are the 99%! >> that's what we do on sunday. i sit in the easy chair and she prepares dinner. >> the education and the -- commerce -- and let's see. i can't. the third one, i can't. sorry. oops. let me tell you, i hope i am the tim tebow of the iowa caucuses. >> it's more like lucille ball at the chocolate factory. you got to get it organized. >> it's a simple message from mitt romney. i would love to have him say that to my face. >> quite a year. next up for president obama, it was the best of years and the worst of them. coming up, how the president fared in 2011. >> to

osama bin laden. did this go to the now-famous report that dr.ice had seen and others that there was a possibility that they were going to fly a plane? >> hat was contributing. we had briefings about osama bin laden and the al qaeda network long before that memo, which i think was august 8. >> you know, so we knew of his, evil intent. he had been active in targeting american enter all arouud the world. i was not -- i don't think it was unusual for me to think oo him at that time. >> that was a controversial period of time in our lives. -pobviously, the country was focused on what happened and the horrific result of the attacks. but as you know, it began then a great debate in this country about what response to be, going into iraq versus going into afghanistan, did we make the right decisions on those matters. then roll it forward to 10 years. we just passed the anniversary of afghanistan and unprecedented number of people on both sides democrats and are still there.onder why we talk about that. >> this is the ongest war in american history. >> r

through some of the highlights which include rick santorum criticizing the president for publicizing osama bin laden's death and at representative peter king held his fourth hearing today on muslim muslim radicalization this time we focused on radicalization within the military and service members and their families being targeted but you wouldn't really know it from watching the news so what happened to all the hype we're going to have all of that morphy tonight dose of happy hour but first take a look at the mainstream media has decided to miss. well if you're watching the mainstream media today then you probably heard a lot about what newt gingrich and mitt romney's campaigns were saying about each other yet again you probably heard a lot about robert goyer which is sentencing but what you didn't see despite the fact that the mainstream media bubble that i constantly talk about is based right here in washington d.c. and in new york is that right here on the streets of washington today there was another demonstration of this time the occupy crowd and its supporters decided to take on k. stre

to ask osama bin laden and the twenty two out of thirty top al qaeda leaders who've been taken off the field whether i engage him appeasement. or whoever's left out there ask them about that. while that is some cold blooded stuff it's the president gloating about all the people that been killed under his command and on his orders so i guess that's what he feels he has to do in the face of our of again attacks although from an outside perspective i think that any normal individual would be disturbed by this statement when asked if this is really what it's come down to in our political discourse so what was the mainstream media's response. well but here's what brought the president out today there was a vote in the senate and it had to do with the man that the president wants to head the consumer financial protection bureau his name is richard cordray the main reason why the president came out was to speak about the blocking of the nomination of cordray now that the senate has refused to move forward on cordray is nomination the president has the power to do a recess appointment. congres

ask osama bin laden is a slam dunk.ma as a matter of fact gets his highest marks on terrorism and foreign affairs. it's his low approval rating on the economy that is his glaring weakness. truth is the appeasement line isn't really meant for all of us anyway. it's a serving of red meat for foreign policy conservatives who hopes one of those republicans wins so they can get all the jobs back at the state department and pentagon. truth be told, this is a less red meat and a more eat your peas time for conservatives now watching a democratic president find and kill the terrorists who alluded them all the while expanding the use of drone strikes and other covert tools in a terrorism fight. kudos to the troops and intelligence professionals that's what most of those conservatives say when you raise those points. any president gets the blame for that economy, the commander in chief including this commander in chief gets. and the sooner they accept that, the less they will have to hear that. >> ask osama bin laden and the 22 o

swooped in and a rates accounts are in kill osama bin laden and the pakistani prime minister warns there will be no more quote business as usual with washington and president obama have this to say about relations with the country. we will constantly evaluate our relationship with pakistan. based on is overall this helping to protect americans and our interests but there's no doubt that. you know we're not going to feel comfortable with a long term strategic relationship with pakistan if we don't think that they're mindful of our interests as well. now let's take a moment to love back on some of the key moments of the ties between the u.s. and pakistan well it kind of blossomed in one nine hundred forty seven when pakistan seeks alliance with western forces to counter india in one thousand nine hundred eighty u.s. and pakistan helped train the armed forces against soviet the soviet invasion of afghanistan but things got rocky in one nine hundred eighty eight when president bush suspends economic and military aid to pakistan ten years later the us imposes sanctions after pakistan test fir

the confession of captured al qaeda member jamal ahmed al fadl told of osama bin laden's efforts to develop chemical weapons, buy weapons-grade uranium, and to spread the al qaeda network into europe. o'neill was becoming obsessed, haunted by the specter of bin laden. >> my dad had a lot of video of osama bin laden. whatever was out there was actually in his apartment. he studied him several times. watched the videos, i know, several times. >> he would watch videotapes. he would read whatever material he could get his hands on. we had a fax in the house. people would fax him information all the time. john would sit in bed or sit on the couch or wherever and constantly underline everything. >> he was obsessed by him. i think there's no question about it. he always knew that there was so much more that he didn't know, and that's what spooked him. what spooked him and what really used to drive him crazy was what he didn't know and how much was out there that he didn't know. >> two bombs minutes apart exploded without warning friday outside the us embassies in nairobi, kenya, and dar es salaam,

highly unstable. >> schieffer: bob orr, the biggest story of the year in my view was the killing of osama bin laden. how is the war on terror these days? >> well, that was a game-changer when it comes to core al qaeda, bob. the network put together by bin laden over a decade ago was preeminent in planning attacks against the west. getting bin laden was crucial if this country was going to bring down al qaeda. i think now we can say, we can start to envision the death throes of the core part of that network. that's all good news. core al qaeda is probably not capable of a 9/11 style attack anymore. but the bad news is this ideology has kind of flattened out and moved across a number of continents. we have hot spots in yemen, hot spots in somalia and north africa. so the threat goes on. it's just a little different. >> schieffer: david martin, another big story, the last u.s. military troops left iraq. there's still a large american presence there. but the last military troops are out. where are we on that? >> well, the day after combat troops left, the prime minister maliki issued an arrest wa

>> the navy seals who dispatched osama bin laden with lethal efficiency and did us all proud. >> i will give it to newt gingrich, john, if that surprises you. he went from loser to winner most effectively this year. i am not going to say what happens next year. >> thank you very much. the envelope. what am i doing? >> let's hear it from jay carson. >> johnny carson. remember him? the biggest winner of 2011 as pointed out the arabs. 2011 was the year when arab street rose unpassed from tunisia to egypt, from yemen to libya. the arab street brought to life the arab spring. so the arab street, the biggest winner of 2011. okay. biggest loser, pat? >> penn state and joe paterno, sadly. >> republican brand. presidents vulnerable that can't get their act together. >> john corzine who is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the political and financial elite. it's one thing to lose $1.2 billion in the market. it's another thing to lose it and not know where it went. >> how can you trace that volume of money? >> how can you possibly lose that volume of money? >> clarence? >> corzine is a nic

highly unstable. >> schieffer: bob orr, the biggest story of the year in my view was the killing of osama bin laden. how is the war on terror these days? >> well, that was a game-changer when it comes to core al qaeda, bob. the network put together by bin laden over a decade ago was preeminent in planning attacks against the west. getting bin laden was crucial if this country was going to bring down al qaeda. i think now we can say, we can start to envision the death throes of the core part of that network. that's all good news. core al qaeda is probably not capable of a 9/11 style attack anymore. but the bad news is this ideology has kind of flattened out and moved across a number of continents. we have hot spots in yemen, hot spots in somalia and north africa. so the threat goes on. it's just a little different. >> schieffer: david martin, another big story, the last u.s. military troops left iraq. there's still a large american presence there. but the last military troops are out. where are we on that? >> well, the day after combat troops left, the prime minister maliki issued an arrest wa

laden. >> reporter: osama bin laden was killed by u.s. forces near islam in may. his hideout was only 50 kill meters from the pakistani capital. the near military facility with tight security. suspicions were raised in the u.s. about the possible connections between bin laden, the pakistani military and the intelligence services. the u.s. mistrust had soured the relationship with islamabad, a key ally in the war on terrorism. the panel will investigate whether the pakistani government knew that bin laden was hiding in the country. it will also try to find out if he was receiving any support there. the members insist they will maintain their independence. some key questions need to be answered. it is not clear if the panel has access to official information and can include it in the report. the u.s. and other members of the international community are eagerly waiting for the outcome of the investigation. hideki yui, nhk world, islamabad. >>> floodwaters from thailand's worst flooding in decades are slowly beginning to retreat. the flooding

was just talking about i want to go back to the president's statement today when he said you ask osama bin laden the twenty or so other guys if they think that i practice a policy of appeasement that you see that statement can you imagine any of our first six presidents presently you can. president eisenhower making such a statement i can imagine george w. bush making such a statement bring it on. it's unbelievable to me that we have a president the united states in any guys making such statements as if he's bragging about killing as if that's the end all and be all the measure of the man is whom we kill in the world all right well i guess i feel. a little sigh of relief here that i'm not the only one that was so worked up about this and actually kind of disgusted by that comment that was out there in the way that everybody just glazed over it so by experience my wife and i just had a room where watching t.v. in a room where watching the t.v. in italy in italy were watching italian being spoken but were listening lucia in the background the english in the background is american citizens in

laden. >> reporter: osama bin laden was killed by u.s. forces near islam in may. his hideout was only 50 kill meters from the pakistani capital. the near military facility with tight security. suspicions were raised in the u.s. about the possible connections between bin laden, the pakistani military and the intelligence services. the u.s. mistrust had soured the relationship with islamabad, a key ally in the war on terrorism. the panel will investigate whether the pakistani government knew that bin laden was hiding in the country. it will also try to find out if he was receiving any support there. the members insist they will maintain their independence. some key questions need to be answered. it is not clear if the panel has access to official information and can include it in the report. the u.s. and other members of the international community are eagerly waiting for the outcome of the investigation. hideki yui, nhk world, islamabad. >>> floodwaters from thailand's worst flooding in decades are slowly beginning to retreat. the flooding

the death of osama bin laden and the death of muammar gaddafi and the protests that brought the arab spring, as well as occupy wall street. so, time magazine distilled all of this into one cover photo and said the protester is their person of the year and i guess that that photograph actually was taken from an occupy wall street, the photograph on the cover was occupy wall street photograph. >> well, here, i'm going to be in the minority again, but i defend the selection of the person, quote, person in the year that resulted in a 30% increase in attention to foreign news, hurray at long last. >> i'm all for that. you know, unfortunately, time magazine, hardly anybody reads it anymore, look, the whole thing about the arab spring was a joke. anybody who knows anything about the history, the modern history of the middle east and gets the jews and christians and infidels, it was never going to be an american revolution, constitutional rights were going to be enshrined. i wrote about that and it doesn't take a prophet to know this is going to happen. the media totally bought it as 1776 fo

sweep then in a raid to capture and kill osama bin laden now the pakistani prime minister warns there will be no more quote business as usual in washington president obama had this to say about relations with the country we will constantly evaluate our relationship with pakistan. based on is overall this helping to protect americans and our interests but there's no doubt that. you know we're not going to feel comfortable with a long term strategic relationship with pakistan if we don't think that they're mindful of our interests as well. so are the ties between the u.s. and pakistan on the brink of breaking are the corresponding marina part and i hope a closer look at the strained for strained relationship relationships are never easy when it comes to the partnership between america and pockets than the sugar daddy of this geo political alliance has turned out to be islamic gods those dangerous fronts in a post nine eleven world focused on joined forces with the us in the war on terror receiving roughly eighteen billion dollars in return over the past ten years yet hundreds of rockets

we confirmed this with records seized from osama bin laden's compaq after his death. we saw this with the plot to bomb the new york subway system in 2009. meanwhile, al qaeda affiliate's have emerged as significant threats. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula operating in yemen has attended several attacks on the united states, including the failed christmas day airline bombing in 2009 and the attempted bombing of u.s.-bound cargo planes in october 2010. most recently, we have a growing concern about the threat from homegrown violent extremists. these individuals have no typical profile. their experiences and motives are often distinct, but they are increasingly savvy and willing to act alone, which makes them difficult to find and stop. in 2009, smadi was a 19-year-old jordanian citizen living in texas, and although he espoused loyal to -- loyalty to al qaeda and some of the modern, he was not affiliated with any groups that would become terrorists. he had become radicalized on his own on the internet. when he expressed clear interest in attacking a dallas skyscraper,

. >> the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden. >> while american troops begin to head home. >> welcome back. glad to see you. >> we reflect on the remarkable year that was and the election year to come in a special edition of "this week." >>> good morning. merry christmas and a very happy holidays to you all. it's hard to believe but 2012 is nearly upon us and in just over a week, iowa becomes ground zero in the race for the white house. rarely has a republican presidential nomination been so up for grabs. but the campaign battle is just one of the dramatic political stories that shaped this unpredictable year and our man jon karl counts down the top 11 of 2011. >>> it was a year of grid lock. protests. hopeful comebacks. ing agonizing defeats. we begin with number 11 of 2011. the tea party invasion of congress. it was a freshman class of outsiders. nearly half of them had never held an elected office. pizza shop owner, a dentist, army colonel allen west. eagles lineman john runyan. john boehner couldn't have been speaker of house without them. >> it's th

mitt romney said he would have taken out osama bin laden the same way president obama did. we'll introduce him to a guy who said the absolute opposite. his name's mitt romney, and it happened four years ago. stay with us wp. ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home ♪ [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. >>> the right wing is foaming at the mouth over the president's and first dog's trip to petsmart. i'll have a special guest join me to discuss puppygate in "psychotalk." ron paul says he didn't know anything about this racist homophobic content published in his newsletters in the '80s and '90s. dr. james peterson will join me for that discussion later in this hour. you can tweet us your thoughts throughout the show using the hashtag edshow. stay tuned. we'll be right back. imple gestue can spark romance anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day so you

mitt romney said he would have taken out osama bin laden the same way president obama did. we'll introduce him to a guy who said the absolute opposite. his name's mitt romney, and it happened four years ago. stay with us wp. everyone have their new blackberry from at&t? it's 4g, so you can do more faster. so, kathryn, post more youtube videos of your baby acting adorable. baby. on it. matt, ignore me and keep updating your fantasy team. huh? jeff, play a game. turbo-boosting now, sir. dennis, check in everywhere you go on foursquare. that's mayor dennis... of the water cooler. you're the best. liz, rock out to pandora. oh, no i'm an only child. and nick, you shouldn't even be here, you can do everything from the golf course. good? good. [ male announcer ] on at&t, blackberry® torch moves at the speed of 4g. ♪ >>> the right wing is foaming at the mouth over the president's and first dog's trip to petsmart. i'll have a special guest join me to discuss puppygate in "psychotalk." ron paul says he didn't know anything about this racist homophobic content published in his newslet

and he says who, and they said osama bin laden. here's his choices, he has three., take him out with a missile, or go in and get him. if you're president, if i'm president, if anybody's president, the first thing you say, leave him alone, is out. we're going to go get them. so the first thing we forget, or you take him out with a missile or take him out the way we did. so we took him out. why is he getting credit for that? >> i don't understand why he's making fun of his success. mark halperin, why do you make fun of the president's call to not go in with a drone attack, which might be messy, going in man on man, doing it the traditional way of faces down the enemy and making sure we had him and identified him, making it clear that we'd accomplished there, seemed to be the tougher call and he made it. he should get credit for that, i think. >> well, this is a broader issue in michael steele's party than just donald trump, which is, we live in a time where if you oppose president obama and you're a republican, you don't give him credit for anything. you don't give h

mitt romney said he would have taken out osama bin laden the same way president obama did. we'll introduce him to a guy who said the absolute opposite. his name's mitt romney, and it happened four years ago. stay with us wp. ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home ♪ [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. multi-policy discount. paperless discount. paid-in-full discount. [yawning] homeowner's discount. safe driver discount. chipmunk family reunion. someone stole the nuts. squirrel jail. justice! countless discounts. now that's progressive. call or click today. [ gargling ] oo-ay-ow. savings. savings. savings? progressive was the first to offer online quoting. you can do better. first to show comparison rates. ding! the "name your price" tool. oh! gosh, don't mind if i do. who was the first to offer pet injury coverage? we were. and when did you know you wanted to sell insurance? i said i wouldn't cry. um... whee! it's flo time. now, that's progressive. call or click today. >>> the right wing is foaming at the mouth over th

what percentage of americans believe osama bin laden is in hell?he correct answer. >> yes. >> how do you do that? >> you got to wonder. >> where do they think he is? >> 88 percent. >> what through me about that question and answer does everybody on earth believe david letterman met with a group of clergy? that is a startling answer. where do the other 39 percent of americans think? where would he go? >> is it a tie are they long? it should be 88 percent. >> i have no idea where they think he is. >> do you see -- what? >> plenty more ahead on this special edition of "the factor." tol pi politics politics. presidentchannel. >> oo the great american news quiz and here they are starring martha mckellem and dubious steve ducey. >> dubious? >> he's on at 4 in the morning. >> a clothing chain came under fire this week after releasing bikinis for little girls that featured padding in the chest. the mothers were outraged. >> impersonally offended by it. i think it is a bit ridiculous it's sad. >> it's too much. you have to let the kids be kids for a while.