"Why do the president's appointees think the picture of him with a kill list in his hand makes him look good?"

Asks Peggy Noonan.

He sits and personally decides who to kill? Americans don't think of their presidents like that. And they don't want to....

After the killing of bin Laden, members of the administration, in a spirit of triumphalism, began giving briefings and interviews in which they said too much. One of the adults in the administration, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, reportedly went to Mr. Donilon's office. "I have a new strategic communications approach to recommend," he said. What? asked Mr. Donilon.

"Shut the [blank] up," Mr. Gates said.