The 'longest 40 minutes' of obama's life

THE VIDEO: CBS' Sunday night broadcast of _60 Minutes_ was dominated by an interview with President Obama, most of which focused on the May 1 killing of Osama bin Laden. (Watch clips

below.) Obama said that before the commando raid, he'd estimated there was a 45 percent chance the U.S. had incorrectly identified bin Laden's location. So watching the operation

unfold in real time was perhaps "the longest 40 minutes of my life." The president didn't lose any sleep over the al Qaeda leader's death, though. Anyone who thinks bin

Laden "didn't deserve what he got needs to have their head examined," he said. The reaction: The whole interview is "pretty dramatic," says Sam Thielman at

_Variety_. And when Obama compared the emotional experience of watching the raid to the time he grappled with his daughter's infant meningitis scare, he "manages to come off as

cuddly even when he's talking about sending two dozen battle-hardened megaspies... to shoot the boogeyman in the face." Indeed, Obama gave us a few new details in a story we

can't get enough of, says Ken Tucker at _Entertainment Weekly_. But it wasn't exactly a hard-hitting interview. _60 Minutes_ is a great "safe haven" for big-time

politicians to get their "message across with the maximum audience and the minimum of reportorial interference." Watch highlights from the interview: SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape

your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE SIGN UP FOR THE WEEK'S FREE NEWSLETTERS From our morning news briefing

to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week

delivered directly to your inbox.