[QUOTE]Washington (CNN) -- Days before the one-year anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, top surrogates for President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney took to the national stage to argue the politics of the attack.
Senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs defended the campaign's use of the event in a recent Web video and in a speech from Vice President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, senior Romney adviser Ed Gillespie characterized the political steps surrounding the death as a "bridge too far."
Team Obama released a video on Friday, partially narrated by former President Bill Clinton, that praised the president's decision to order the killing of the al Qaeda chief one year from Tuesday and questioned whether Romney would have made the same choice. Biden similarly questioned the former Massachusetts governor in a campaign-style speech on Thursday.
Gibbs, the former White House press secretary, said the video was "not over the line" and criticized comments Romney made on the issue during his first White House bid as "foolish."
The video quotes Romney in 2007 during his first White House bid, saying, "It's not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person." Days later, he said, "We'll move everything to get him (bin Laden)."
"There's a difference in the roles they would play as commander in chief, and I certainly think that's fair game," Gibbs said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
During his second White House bid, Romney has repeatedly praised the president for launching the raid on bin Laden.
Gillespie, a former aide to former President George W. Bush and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said utilizing the raid for political purposes is one of the reasons Obama has "become one of the most divisive presidents in American history."
"He took something that was a unifying event for all Americans, and he's managed to turn it into a divisive, partisan political attack," Gillespie said in a separate interview on the same NBC program. "I think most Americans will see it as a sign of a desperate campaign."The campaign video received criticism from Republicans, including from 2008 Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain. On Friday, he called the minute-long spot "a cheap political attack ad."
White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan avoided the politics of the issue but did praise the president's decision-making skills surrounding bin Laden's death by U.S. Navy SEALs during a raid in Pakistan.
"I don't do politics," Brennan said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "I just know that President Obama, when the time came for him to make a momentous decision like that, he took the action that did bring bin Laden to justice."
Biden teed off what will likely remain a talking point from Team Obama through the election in a Thursday address that previewed a potential 2012 slogan.
"If you are looking for a bumper sticker to sum up how President Obama has handled what we inherited, it's pretty simple: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," Biden said during a speech at New York University, lines Gibbs echoed on Sunday.
The president will pick up the message with what the campaign has billed as the president's re-election kick-off on Saturday. Obama is expected to attend campaign rallies in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia, two likely battleground states in the November election.
Biden will attend campaign events in Missouri and Indiana on Monday and in Washington on Thursday.
Obama rallied young voters on college campuses in North Carolina, Iowa and Colorado last week, calling for Congress to stop an increase in the interest rate for student loans in July.
Jim Messina, Obama campaign manager, said that Saturday will mark the end of the Republican "monologue."
"Now Romney has to put his record and his agenda up against the president's, and we look forward to that debate," Messina said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters.
Romney is expected to meet with former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Friday, a long-awaited rendezvous given that the former Pennsylvania senator has yet to endorse his party's presumptive nominee.
Santorum danced around the issue last week with CNN's Piers Morgan during his first televised interview since he suspended his candidacy on April 10.
He acknowledged Romney would be the "person that's going against Barack Obama," but said he was still "working through it" and discussing it with this wife, Karen.
Newt Gingrich is scheduled to announce the suspension of his campaign on Wednesday, at which point he will back Romney, sources told CNN.Romney will spend much of the coming week fundraising, with events in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
He will also campaign Monday with Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, the latest potential vice presidential candidate to appear with the GOP frontrunner. The freshman senator was an early backer of Romney and appeared with him repeatedly on the stump ahead of her state's primary.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida got the VP scrutiny treatment last week when he appeared with Romney in Pennsylvania. Many political observers see Rubio as the favorite for Romney's vice presidential pick, given his ties to the swing state of Florida, the Hispanic community (he is the son of Cuban immigrants) and members of the grassroots tea party movement.
Rubio was one of three potential candidates mentioned by House Speaker John Boehner in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." Boehner said there is a "long list" of qualified candidates for the GOP ticket, including Rubio, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, all of whom fit his criteria that the pick be capable of serving as president.
"There are a lot of people that I like. But this is a personal choice for Gov. Romney, and I'm confident that he'll have a running mate that will be helpful to the ticket," Boehner told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley. "I think the number one quality is: Are they capable of being president in the case of an emergency?"
Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles and Haley Barbour, former Mississippi governor and RNC chairman, on Sunday downplayed the importance of the No. 2 pick.
Villaraigosa, a Mexican-American, said he wouldn't expect a Rubio pick to make a large difference with Hispanic voters.
"I don't expect that it's going to win you an election or win you an entire demographic. This is going to be fought on the issues," Villaraigosa said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"Can a vice presidential candidate just change the whole deck? No I don't think so," Barbour said on the CBS program. "The idea that you're going to reshuffle the deck would be very unusual in American history."[/QUOTE]
Its been one year already? Jesus fucking christ.
I would swear it was this spring
did I just miss a whole year out, somehow?
What the fuck this doesn't not feel like a year has passed.
Good to see it wasn't just me thinking that it had gone quick.
Maybe time has sped up or something.
One year??? The fuck, time?
[video=youtube;GfG8Btb0l3g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfG8Btb0l3g[/video]
he cracked a joke about this at the Correspondents Dinner
So the Republicans say that Obama had nothing to do with it (not true).
Democrats say Obama was there himself and shot Bin Laden dead himself while saving a baby's life (also not true).
[QUOTE=person11;35766281]So the Republicans say that Obama had nothing to do with it (not true).
Democrats say Obama was there himself and shot Bin Laden dead himself while saving a baby's life (also not true).[/QUOTE]
I don't think anyone has said that it was 100% Obama.
(I see that it was a hyperbole, but it seems like false equivalence is being implied here. Like when people say that both parties are fucked up when the republicans are obviously far worse)
[QUOTE=CommunistCookie;35766294]I don't think anyone has said that it was 100% Obama.[/QUOTE]
It was a hyperbole silly goose.
I hate how republicans always say that obama didn't have much to do with it while also saying that he needs to accept responsibility for his predecessor, you can't have him accept responsibility for the bad shit that carried over and take his credit away for the good.
Basically the truth is in the middle.
Obama played an important role, but the foundations of the manhunt were placed by Bush.
And the real truth is that the effectiveness of US Intelligence and Military Forces have nothing to do with the sitting President.
I think it's looking really good for Obama right now. Unless Romney's going to pull something amazing out of his sleeve, this election is already decided.
A few hours before Osama was killed:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xun9UYCO7es[/media]
Obama is thinking "It's funny because in a few hours time we're going to kill him"
I refuse to believe that it's been a year. Didn't this happen in october?
[QUOTE=person11;35766281]So the Republicans say that Obama had nothing to do with it (not true).
Democrats say Obama was there himself and shot Bin Laden dead himself while saving a baby's life (also not true).[/QUOTE]
I believe obama ripped osama's beating heart from his chest while screaming MORTAL KOMBAT at the top of his lungs.
[QUOTE=Lambeth;35767538]I believe obama ripped osama's beating heart from his chest while screaming MORTAL KOMBAT at the top of his lungs.[/QUOTE]
haha yeah totally happened oh wait no you just suck at posting
[QUOTE=person11;35766281]So the Republicans say that Obama had nothing to do with it (not true).
Democrats say Obama was there himself and shot Bin Laden dead himself while saving a baby's life (also not true).[/QUOTE]
But then it turns out it was Osama's socialist Muslim terrorist baby therefor Obama is evil (Republicans)
Holy shit, a year? Dammit time, slow the fuck down!
I would give Panetta a lot of credit for it. More then the Bush administration for sure. He was kind of responsible for the massive drone campaign that led to them finding the compound and he shaped the CIA to be more efficient.
There's also the fact that if anything was massively screwed up, we would have a war with Pakistan on our hands.
Can we see the footage now? We've been patient.
[QUOTE=Lamar;35766049]Its been one year already? Jesus fucking christ.[/QUOTE]
It's binladen, he's speeding time up so we all die quicker
Mitt Romney and that near dead McCain fellow, both are giving Obama loads of heat due to attempting to use Osama as a political tool. Well, I believe he has every right to do so and should. Obama made an executive decision, to risk the lives of American soldiers and without talking to the Pakistani government, raided the most wanted person in the worlds compound, took him out with no collateral damage or civilian casualties, and got out. Obama made that decision and gave the order, he shouldn't be subject to mass scrutiny where if he had failed, he would have no chance in Hell for a second term and his public image would be beyond repair. But since it was a success, I don't see why he isn't allowed to take the credit for the call.
[QUOTE=person11;35766610]Basically the truth is in the middle.
Obama played an important role, but the foundations of the manhunt were placed by Bush.
And the real truth is that the effectiveness of US Intelligence and Military Forces have nothing to do with the sitting President.[/QUOTE]
I don't think the White House's use of the issue was so much to take credit for it, rather use it as something to counter the often popular sentiment among them that Obama is compromising US national security and is "weak" when it comes to making these choices because he's been soft on the mooslim turrorists.
Generally I think it's really, really idiotic to claim a sitting president has some sort of "anti-American" agenda like his critics essentially say, when they are actively working foreign policy to pursue American interests.
Now there's another discussion to be had when you consider whose interests in America is being represented in foreign policy. It's a shame that no one really takes this up in foreign politics, but then again you get blasted for not supporting the troops if you criticize military policy.
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