With the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden — and President Obama‘s new ad that highlights the mission — comes a decent helping of political controversy. Many, including Arianna Huffington (who called it “despicable”), have criticized Obama’s bin Laden ad. But on Monday, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir posed a question: If President George W. Bush could use “Mission Accomplished,” why can’t Obama bring up the bin Laden raid when he’s seeking re-election?

While appearing at a press conference Monday alongside Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, President Barack Obama was asked to give his thoughts regarding the one year anniversary of Osama bin Laden‘s capture and death, as well as his reaction regarding Mitt Romney‘s comment that “anyone” would have approved the plan to capture bin Laden, “even Jimmy Carter.”

Following a speech to voters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney was asked whether he would have “gone after” Osama bin Laden, to which he responded defensively, “Of course. Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.”

Huffington Post creator Arianna Huffington blasted President Obama on CBS This Morning for campaigning on the killing of Osama bin Laden, saying that “”Using the Osama bin Laden assassination, killing, the great news that we had a year ago, in order to say basically that Obama did it and Romney might not have done it … to turn it into a campaign ad is one of the most despicable things you can do.”

She went on to compare it with then-Sen. Hillary Clinton‘s 2008 “3am Call” ad. Arianna, we love you, but you must be huffing a ton of something to miss the obvious problems with your attack.

On Monday, Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson invited New York Post political columnist Michael Goodwin on to discuss the existence of President Obama’s “enemies list” as well as the President’s Osama bin Laden ad. Goodwin said that Obama has become much more of a “divider than a uniter” since his 2008 campaign.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden after a successful raid on his Pakistani compound by SEAL Team 6. Chris Matthews marked the anniversary by bringing up Time‘s new feature on how the decision went down. It reveals that only half a dozen other people besides President Obama knew about the plan, and despite warnings from the others, Obama chose the risky path in sending in the SEALs. Matthews and the panel discussed just how risky it was and how lucky Obama was that the mission was a success.

President Obama‘s new campaign ad touting the successful mission that took out Osama bin Laden is raising some eyebrows because of how it treats the national security issue as a political sledgehammer of sorts to whack Mitt Romney with. Tucker Carlson, filling in for Sean Hannity last night, talked with Charles Krauthammer about how the ad could have been something positive for Obama, but was instead needlessly negative.

In a web ad released today by President Obama‘s campaign, Bill Clinton praises Obama’s handling of the raid that captured Osama bin Laden last year, and suggests that presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney would not have ordered the raid.

White House Correspondents Dinner headliner and Jimmy Kimmel Live host Jimmy Kimmel has incurred the wrath of the humorless right for telling Reuters that “It’s hard to make fun of Obama in general because he’s a cool character,” adding that “outside of his ears, there’s not a whole lot” to joke about. Breitbart.com’s John Nolte dubbed Kimmel a “Comedy Coward,” but rather than curse the darkness, lit a candle of hilarity to guide the late-night host through the comedy darkness.

Buzzfeed‘s Andrew Kaczynski has dug up a rather inconvenient photo from Mitt Romney‘s last presidential campaign, in which he poses with a sign that says “Say No To Obama, Osama, and Chelsea’s Moma (no, Chelsea Clinton does not own a Museum Of Modern Art, that’s just how these people spell),” which the candidate laughed off as a “joke” in July of 2007. That, and the video we found of Romney “confusing” then-Sen. Barack Obama with Osama bin Laden, are embarrassing on a number of levels, not the least of which is the number that Obama and Chelsea’s mama did on Osama, a move Romney said he wouldn’t have made in 2007.

Al Qaeda’s leadership decided to take some time off from trying to kill America to rate our media outlets last week, apparently, and the team at Red Eye were very happy to hear that, while Al Qaeda media adviser (yes, that’s a real thing) Adam Gadahn thought many news networks were mostly fair, he called for Fox News to “die in her anger” as it “falls into the abyss.” After all, the panel agreed, if Al Qaeda likes how they are being covered on your network, isn’t that a bad thing?

A hearty round of applause for Fox News: The network enjoys the laudable distinction of having been Al Qaeda’s least favorite news outlet.

A new report has come out about the plans that Osama bin Laden was working on before he was killed and, guess what? You guys aren’t going to believe this but the guy was kind of being an evil jerk. According to information in The Daily Mail and the Washington Post, Bin Laden was concocting plans to have President Barack Obama and General David Petraeus assassinated.

When President Obama announced the mission to kill Osama bin Laden was a success, many said it would seal his re-election. Now it seems even Vice President Joe Biden was wary about the president’s prospects of second term if not for the foreign policy success. Speaking at fundraiser Monday night, Biden told supporters that without the successful bin Laden mission, Obama would have been a one-term president.

Supporters of President Obama‘s reelection campaign, and even non-fans like former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, now have an even better look at the soon-to-be-released (March 15) The Road We’ve Traveled, a 17 minute campaign documentary by Academy Award™-winning director Davis Guggenheim. The campaign has released a new trailer for the film, but given its content, you might not hear Mitt Romney cracking wise about this one.

On the heels of President Obama’s tough, well-received speech to AIPAC this past weekend, leading GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is out with a butch new op-ed that continues his self-reinvention as a foreign policy Chuck Norris. However, progressive SuperPAC American Bridge has released a web video to remind Americans that, just like his declaration that “any president” would have greenlit the Osama bin Laden raid, the Mitt Romney of 2007 clucked a different tune.

This weekend, Nation of Islam anachronism Louis Farrakhan did his thing “for more than three hours” in Chicago, blaming America for 9/11 and warning that assassins are out to get President Obama. It didn’t take long for Sean Hannity to play Six Degrees of Jeremiah Wright with the story, noting that Wright had been photographed with Farrakhan and Sacha Baron Cohen spirit animal Muammar Gaddafi, and had also been photographed with First Lady Michelle Obama. What say you, Herman Cain?

Ed Schultz began something of a feud with Sean Hannity, again, yesterday as the Fox News host had commented that he believed that Osama bin Laden would still be alive and kicking had President Obama “gotten his way.” Naturally, these comments incensed Schultz and led him to a discussion with Hannity over Twitter which resulted in Schultz challenging Hannity to produce any evidence that supported him.

Over the weekend, CBS’ 60 Minutes offered an in-depth profile on Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, a man who is, very likely, best known for his role as CIA Director — a role that saw him presiding over the covert operations that resulted in the discovery and death of Osama bin Laden. As Secretary of Defense, Panetta is the person who would be responsible for launching a nuclear missile from the so-called “Doomsday Plane” should the President give the order.

Vice President Joe Biden spoke to a conference of House Democrats in Maryland today, and in discussing the SEAL Team raid that successfully took out Osama bin Laden, he admitted that he advised President Obama not to carry out the mission because “we have to do more things to see if he’s there.” The vice president gave an insider account of the internal discussions in the White House before the order was officially carried out.

The State of the Union address is a once-in-a-year opportunity for mockery for Jon Stewart. With the President going over his past successes and future plans, there was plenty to go over: The Osama Bin Laden opening, the large amounts of tax credits, and the bad joke that made the First Lady force an awkward smile.

In the world of the microscopic news cycle, a year is a mighty long time. Think “dog years” on steroids. Over the course of the past year, in thousands (around 7,500 ) of articles and millions (between 3 and 4 million) of words, Mediaite has covered the ups and downs of that whizzing, ricocheting media world. In case you lost track in that sea of information, we’ve compiled a list of 2011 Media Winners and Losers that we hope will be the start  of a conversation, not the end of one. Here, in no particular order, are Mediaite’s 2011 Media Winners and Losers.

On Wednesday’s The Daily Rundown, host Chuck Todd drew a lot out of the candidate with his deceptively easygoing style. Todd asked Romney about the notion that “any president” would have carried out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and Romney said “I think other presidents and other candidates like myself would do exactly the same thing.”

Shockingly, Mitt Romney from four years ago sang a completely different tune.

On Sunday, I caught up with Up With Chris Hayes‘ Chris Hayes to quiz him on the success of his new show, his take on the media, and other topics. In the second part of our exclusive interview, Hayes assessed some current political topics, including President Obama‘s recent tough-talking reply to a question about conservative accusations of an “appeasement” strategy in foreign policy. Somewhat surprisingly, Hayes was not happy with the President’s “Ask Osama bin Laden” response to that question.

It’s a well-known fact that Donald Trump has all of the self-awareness of a Commodore Vic-20, but sometimes, he manages to outdo himself. Such was the case today, when the Apprentice host and former Muammar Gaddafi landlord trivialized President Obama’s decision to take out Osama bin Laden, asking Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, “Who is not going to make that decision?”