As you’ve seen in our feature section over the course of the day we’ve been chronicling in some detail how the administration’s narrative of events in the bin Laden raid story have changed over the course of the last 36 hours. The wife human shield story has now been dropped. And contrary to the first accounts, bin Laden himself seems to have been unarmed. But I think we’ve gotten into comical exaggeration territory when the Atlantic refers to this as somehow comparable to the collapse of the Jessica Lynch story back in 2003. Read More

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says President Obama made a “bold and right decision” ordering the special forces raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

I had been working on a longer post about this. But I think Graham’s statement goes to the heart of the political significance of this moment for the president. Read More

As most of you know, back during the 2008 election, then-candidate Barack Obama said that he would not hesitate to order an attack on Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan, with or without permission, if he had good intelligence to act on. He was pilloried first by Hillary Clinton and then much more aggressively by John McCain who used the statement as evidence of Obama’s inexperience. We’ve pulled together the key snippets of video to recapture this uncannily prescient part of the 2008 debate. Watch.

The latest hints suggest that President Obama will eventually authorize the release of photographs of Osama bin Laden in death. I don’t pretend that there’s an obvious or easy answer to whether these photograph should be made public. I remember feeling somewhat repulsed at the time by the release of the photographs of Saddam Hussein’s sons in 2003. But since the news broke Sunday night I’ve thought pretty strongly that, given the unique circumstances of bin Laden’s life and death, some photographic evidence should, really must be released.

A friend of mine today seemed even more adamant that releasing any photos was a terrible idea.

It’s such a unique set of facts I don’t pretend any certainty about it. So I’d be curious to hear your thoughts. Is releasing one or more of these photos a good idea? A necessary step? Or an awful idea?

The wheels were already in motion for the raid that would take out Osama bin Laden when Washington gathered Saturday for its glitziest event of the year:

Last night I asked for your opinions on whether or not the President should authorize the release of photos of bin Laden in death. I’ve read many of them and learned a lot. There are so many and so many good ones I don’t know where to start in reprinting any, though I may come back to it later today. I’d say on balance, though I haven’t done a formal count, they lean against release. But there’s a tremendous diversity of opinion.

I also read this piece in The New Yorker by Philip Gourevitch, arguing against the release. His argument is basically moral and aesthetic: let’s leave the visual memory of bin Laden’s killing as that already classic photo from the White House Situation Room or the celebrations after the announcement rather than a gruesome death photo.

I can’t say I’m any more sure what the right answer is but I’ve gone from believing it’s a gruesome necessity to thinking it may be a bad idea, at least so soon.

A special election last night in Wisconsin could signal a coming Democratic tide.

John Ashcroft signs on as new ethics chief at Blackwater Corp (now rechristened Xe).

For all the latest updates on bin Laden’s death and the aftermath, keep checking our TPM Live-Updating bin Laden Wire.

NBC is reporting that the president has decided not to release photos of bin Laden after his death.