Sure, Drudge has lied about and failed over much more substantial matters - but I think we can at least file this one under one of the stupidest lies they've ever attempted to tell, at least in terms of execution.
So as of 12/02 at 10:15pm, the following photo of a cadet at West Point is on Drudge's main page...
...with the following caption beneath it:
Cadet read 'Kill Bin Laden' book during Obama speech...
Notice I highlighted "during".
When you click on the actual Yahoo! News link, however - which Drudge itself links to - you get the following description:
A U.S. Army cadet reads a book entitled "Kill Bin Laden" as he waits with other cadets for U.S. President Barack Obama to deliver an address on U.S. policy and the war in Afghanistan at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York December 1, 2009...
The cadet was reading the book while they waited for the address to begin.
I know, you don't have to say it: it's Drudge; what else is new?
But if the right's echo chamber starts blubbering about this cadet reading during the speech, at least you'll know it's 100% bullshit.
UPDATE: Apparently, they've already bought it wholesale. Pretty much every right-wing site - over 80,000 repetitions - is running with it already - including Hannity. So every one of these idiots either saw the headline and didn't click the actual link - or they did, and - well, just don't care.
Here's another cadet reading a book while he waited for the speech to begin - although I have a feeling that this particular cadet's book isn't exactly something Drudge wants their audience to know that a West Point Cadet is concerned about.
A U.S. Army cadet reads a book entitled "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society" as he awaits a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama on the U.S. policy and the fighting in Afghanistan at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York December 1, 2009...
UPDATE #2: Regarding the photo of the first cadet, Sun Dog in the comments makes a solid point: Drudge lying about when this cadet was reading his book - and the echo chamber's subsequent repetition of the lie in the media stream - could potentially cause some trouble for the cadet himself; although I imagine West Point has better fact-checkers than Matt Drudge.
UPDATE #3: This, from adios in the comments:
UPDATE #4: Okay, so Drudge changed the caption...to "Cadet read "Kill Bin Laden" book AT Obama Speech". So - while the new caption is now technically true, they're goal is still to imply that he read it during the speech. Unbelievable.