By Brian Hughes Staff Writer Washington Examiner
President Obamas re-election team on Sunday claimed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney lacked the grit to order the killing of Osama bin Laden in a particularly aggressive attack drawing Republican scorn around the anniversary of the al Qaeda leaders death.
Asked whether Romney would have approved the same clandestine raid Obama ordered a year ago when he dispatched a Navy SEALs team to bin Ladens compound in Pakistan Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs said I dont think its clear that he would.
Look just a few years ago President Obama -- then a candidate -- said in a speech that if we had actionable intelligence of a high-value target in Pakistan wed go in and get that high-value target Gibbs said on NBCs Meet the Press. Mitt Romney said that was foolish. He wouldnt do such a thing. That he wouldnt move heaven and earth to get Osama bin Laden.
The salvo at Romney echoed earlier claims by Obamas surrogates and indicates the president doesnt just intend to use the killing of bin Laden to establish his own national security credentials but to question the readiness of Romney to be the nations commander in chief.
It was the same kind of attack on Romney that Vice President Biden first voiced last week and about which the Obama campaign launched a Web video.
The campaign video features former President Clinton crediting Obama for taking the harder and the more honorable path in killing bin Laden. Which path would Mitt Romney have taken? the video asks.
The Romney campaign countered Sunday that such assertions reflect the desperation of a president facing a tough re-election slog amid stubbornly slow economic recovery.
This is one of the reasons President Obama has become one of the most divisive presidents in American history said Romney adviser Ed Gillespie. He took something that was a unifying event for all Americans ... and hes managed to turn it into a divisive partisan political attack.
In questioning Romneys ability to deal with a national security crisis Obama is flipping the very kind of attacks launched against him four years ago. In the 2008 Democratic primary then-Sen. Hillary Clinton unleashed an ad questioning whether Obama had what it took to respond to a 3 a.m. phone call. At the time the Obama camp accused Clinton of employing the politics of fear.
Rebutting Republican criticism Obamas campaign said that if the mission to get bin Laden had failed Romney certainly would have used that against the president in the fall campaign. Besides aides said theyre merely highlighting an achievement that is part of Obamas first-term record.
Obama will weigh in on the killing of bin Laden later this week in an interview with NBCs Brian Williams in which the president is expected to talk about the anxiety of watching and waiting while SEAL Team Six completed the raid on bin Ladens compound.
However even some Democrats say Obama is overplaying his hand on bin Ladens death.
Id advise them to rein it in a bit said one Democratic strategist not connected to the Obama campaign. He doesnt need to attack Romney -- just highlight the accomplishment -- because it throws politics into an issue on which everyone gives him credit. Theres no point in screwing that up.
