Nearly a full year has passed since the U.S. mission that killed Osama bin Laden, and President Obama’s re-election campaign is clearly eager to remind American voters of his counter-terrorism success. Obama for America released this new video overnight.
Note, however, that the clip doesn’t just praise the president’s leadership; it also asks, “Which path would Romney have taken?”
It’s clearly a relevant question, not just because Obama’s record will matter as part of the 2012 debate, but also because this is seen as a legitimate vulnerability for the presumptive Republican nominee.
Indeed, Vice President Biden delivered a lengthy speech on foreign policy yesterday, hammering Romney as an inexperienced naif with a reckless and ignorant worldview. The OBL angle was a key part of the remarks.
“In 2008, while campaigning for the nomination, Governor Romney was asked what he would do about bin Laden. Let me tell you exactly what he said, and I quote. He said, ‘there would be very insignificant increase in safety,’ then he went to say, ‘if Bin Laden was brought to justice. ‘ That’s a quote. He then went on to say, ‘it’s not worth moving heaven and Earth, spending billions of dollars just to catch one person.’
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“Here’s how candidate Obama answered that question. He said, ‘if I have Osama bin Laden in our sights, I will take him out. I will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. This has to be our biggest national security priority.’
“I was a little bit more direct. I said, we’d follow the S.O.B. to the gates of Hell if we had to.”
The Romney campaign hasn’t offered much in the way of pushback, probably because he’d prefer the issue just go away. The former governor, who has no background in military policy, national security policy, or international affairs, really did say “it’s not worth moving heaven and earth” to get the terrorist responsible for 9/11. Around the same time, Romney said he would not order a strike into Pakistan to get bin Laden, rejecting Obama’s willingness “to enter an ally of ours” to target the terrorist leader.
The more Americans hear about this, the worse it is for the GOP nominee.
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