Only Obama Could Kill Osama?

In the annals of atrocious blogging, few can surpass this ramble by Adam Serwer of the Washington Post. It's something about how Bush doesn't deserve credit for the killing of Bin Laden, but if you don't credit Clinton you're a hypocrite. Also, Bush and McCain never really wanted to kill Bin Laden:

During the 2008 election, Bush mocked Obama for asserting he would target bin Laden if he was hiding in Pakistan. GOP presidential candidate John McCain attacked Obama as “confused and inexperienced” for saying so.” It is a bit rich to regard the results of an operation that Bush and McCain would have opposed as “continuity” with the prior administration. There are a number of disturbing continuities between Bush and Obama on national security, but the singular focus on bin Laden isn’t one of them.

I'd like to see a quote of Bush "mocking" Obama about Bin Laden. Until then, I won't comment. Second, I don't think any war should have a "singular focus" on a single target. Obama doubled the amount of troops in Afghanistan and authorized attacks on Libya, how can anyone say he had a singular focus on Bin Laden? As for McCain, Serwer's interpretation is hard to defend. This is what McCain said in the first 2008 debate (emphasis added):

Now, on this issue of aiding Pakistan, if you're going to aim a gun at somebody, George Shultz, our great secretary of state, told me once, you'd better be prepared to pull the trigger.

I'm not prepared at this time to cut off aid to Pakistan. So I'm not prepared to threaten it, as Senator Obama apparently wants to do, as he has said that he would announce military strikes into Pakistan.

We've got to get the support of the people of -- of Pakistan. He said that he would launch military strikes into Pakistan.

Now, you don't do that. You don't say that out loud. If you have to do things, you have to do things, and you work with the Pakistani government.

McCain said you don't say you're willing to send troops into Pakistan out loud. Serwer used this to conclude that McCain would have opposed the operation to get Bin Laden. I think it's clear that McCain would have approved the raid to get Bin Laden (what else could McCain been referring to when he said "If you have to do things, you have to do things"?). As for his over-confidence in the Pakistani government - Obama still provides aid and works with them. I don't see how McCain's position above is different than what the Obama Administration has done over the past couple of years.
 
The idea that McCain and Bush denounced sending troops into Pakistan in pursuit of Bin Laden has become a recent meme on the Left. I've seen the links to the quotes, and neither one really said that. They were willing to do it, they just didn't want to say it publicly and antagonize the Pakistanis.