The Bin Laden Question

The recent one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, coupled with the formal launch of President Obama's 2012 campaign, has produced a great deal of controversy. Many Republican politicians and strategists have suggested that the President is taking too much credit for bin Laden's death and manipulating it for political gain. John McCain went so far as to claim President Obama is "shamelessly turning the one decision he got right into a pathetic political act."

The President and his advisers have responded by questioning whether a Mitt Romney Presidency would have acted in such a decisive manner, citing past Romney statements that bin Laden's capture should not be a dominant foreign policy objective.

Meanwhile, Brian Williams is interviewing the President in a one-year retrospective on the events that led to bin Laden's death.

Clearly, there is much disagreement over whether the bin Laden saga is fair political game in the 2012 campaign. This disagreement falls almost perfectly along partisan lines.

There is little doubt that the President's call to send the Navy Seals in to Pakistan was based on less than perfect intelligence that bin Laden was there. Had things gone wrong, the failed mission would have dealt a crippling political blow and would most probably have cost Obama any chance at reelection in 2012. This position is beyond dispute and is supported by analysts on both sides of the political spectrum. The political costs were, potentially, enormous; it follows that the political rewards are not only great but relevant to 2012 as well.

The Obama team will no doubt continue to use bin Laden as a key feature of their 2012 game plan. They should. Reactions from Republicans like John McCain sound, from my vantage point, like the complaints of a party that knows it is exposed on this issue. I suspect that part of the vehemence of this outcry stems from the Republican party's reluctance to take a backseat on foreign policy. Whatever the hue and cry, Osama bin Laden's capture and death is a political strength for the President in the 2012 campaign.