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While In Kabul, Obama highlights foreign policy record
“Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order,” he said.
Democrats said the mention of Carter underscored precisely the political risk Obama was willing to take. A 1980 Carter-approved attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Tehran ended in disaster in an Iranian desert, with helicopters destroyed, eight servicemen dead and the United States deeply embarrassed.
“It’s very important for people to understand that this was a gutsy political call,” said former Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., who now heads the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Facing conflicting predictions about the bin Laden raid’s chances for success, Obama showed “a combination of deliberation and decisiveness” that Americans like, Perriello said.
Some Republicans, however, have sharply criticized the president’s references to bin Laden’s death.
“Barack Obama is not only trying to score political points by invoking Osama bin Laden, he is doing a shameless end-zone dance to help himself get re-elected,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who lost to Obama in 2008.
Writer Arianna Huffington, usually an Obama ally, joined in. She told “CBS This Morning”: “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.”
Like most former governors who run for president, Romney has scant foreign policy experience. He has said Obama is too faint-hearted in defending Israel and in warning Iran and North Korea about the potential consequences of their nuclear ambitions.
