Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It was one year ago on a Sunday (May 1) following the White House Correspondents Dinner at which President Obama figuratively "slayed" the Birther King, Donald Trump, with his brilliant comedy, that the nation learned the President was literally slaying the murderous terrorist Osama bin Laden responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a daring Seal Team Six raid into Pakistan. Just as he said he would during a presidential debate with John McCain in the 2008 campaign. Promises kept.
Just days before the anniversary of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a new video from the Obama campaign focuses on the presidential decision-making that was critical to the mission's success. New Obama campaign video highlights decision to launch bin Laden raid:
The video begins with previously unreleased footage of President Clinton talking about the political risk President Obama took in ordering the raid. A failed mission, Clinton said, "would have been horrible for him, but he reasoned 'I cannot in good conscience do nothing.' He took the harder and more honorable path, and the one that produced, in my opinion, the best result."
The video then contrasts Obama's decisive leadership with Mitt Romney's blasé attitude towards bringing bin Laden to justice. "Which path would Mitt Romney have taken?" the video asks before transitioning to a quote from an August, 2007 article about Romney's criticism of Obama's willingness to strike targets inside Pakistan without or without the Pakistani government's assistance. Next, a quote from Mitt Romney himself: "It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person."
The video closes by returning to President Obama's decision. "He had to decide," President Clinton says. "And that's what you hire the president to do. You hire a president to make the calls when no one else can do it."
Video below the fold.
Of course, Willard "Mittens" Romney has his knickers in a twist over the ad. As Jed Lewison writes, Mitt Romney outraged over reminders of his opposition to bin Laden strategy:
Mitt Romney in April 2007 dismissing the importance of bringing Osama bin Laden to justice:
[Romney] said the country would be safer by only “a small percentage” and would see “a very insignificant increase in safety” if al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was caught because another terrorist would rise to power. “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person,” Romney said.
* * *
[W]hen then-Senator Barack Obama said he would order strikes within Pakistan against targets like Osama bin Laden with or without the support of the Pakistani government, Romney slammed him:
"I do not concur in the words of Barack Obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours... I don't think those kinds of comments help in this effort to draw more friends to our effort," Romney told reporters on the campaign trail. [...] Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is one of the Republican front-runners, said U.S. troops "shouldn't be sent all over the world." He called Obama's comments "ill-timed" and "ill-considered."
But now that Obama's strategy succeeded, Romney's campaign says it's wrong for the Obama campaign to point out that Romney opposed it:
"The killing of Osama bin Laden was a momentous day for all Americans and the world, and Governor Romney congratulated the military, our intelligence agencies, and the President,” Saul said in a statement. "It’s now sad to see the Obama campaign seek to use an event that unified our country to once again divide us, in order to try to distract voters’ attention from the failures of his administration."
Earth to Romneyland: This has nothing to do with distracting voters from anything. It's about focusing their attention on a major achievement.
And if it was okay for Mitt Romney to say getting bin Laden wasn't important and it was okay for him to attack Barack Obama's strategy, then it's also okay for Barack Obama's campaign to point out Mitt Romney was wrong and Obama was right. That's not dividing America—that's pointing out the truth. And it's not our problem that for Mitt Romney, the truth hurts.
And the same goes for our boy Senator McNasty, John McCain, who like George W. Bush wrapped himself in 9/11 imagery, extracting every ounce of political advantage from the attacks that they could. John McCain complains about politicizing 9/11:
But when it came for getting the guy who was behind the attacks, they failed. They said they had a secret plan, but if they did, they never did anything about it. And when Barack Obama proposed a plan for actually getting the job done, they said no. Now that it's worked, they don't think it's fair for him to ever talk about it again.
The truth hurts.
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