Problem, that's not what he said.
You be the judge.
The quote-misquote is taken from a leaked CBS Interview. Here's what the President-Elect said.
"I think that we have to so weaken his infrastructure that, whether he is technically alive or not, he is so pinned down that he cannot function," Obama said.
"My preference obviously would be to capture or kill him. But if we have so tightened the noose that he's in a cave somewhere and can't even communicate with his operatives, then we will meet our goal of protecting America."
When you lead with a headline that says Killing bin Laden may not be essential, A) you've made it sound like that's a direct quote, when it's not. B) It further makes it sound like Obama's taking the Bush cue of "I don't think about him very much." It suggests a lackadaiscial attitude toward pursuing Bin Laden.
Was there anything lackadaiscial in that statement?
I'm sorry, but what part of "my preference obviously would be to capture or kill him" didn't Raw Story understand??
The word "essential" appears once in the Raw Story story...in the headline, odds are written by someone else.
UPDATE (12:02pm): To clarify, a far more accurate, and simpler, take on what Obama said, is "We don't have to kill him to neutralize him as a threat."
But by saying what they said, how they said it, they're making it sound like Obama said "Killing Osama? We can take it or leave it". It's a subtle change, but it changes the meaning of the quote.
