Something fascinating–and potentially important–is happening in the 2012 presidential campaign.
The Obama campaign’s crass politicization of the killing of Osama bin Laden seems to have struck a nerve in just about everyone – from expected quarters (like the Wall Street Journal editorial page), to moderately conservative ones (like David Brooks of the New York Times), to liberal ones (like Dana Milbank of the Washington Post). But perhaps the most important criticisms are being made by Navy SEALs themselves, as Alana points out.
This cannot be what the Obama campaign predicted; and the fact that they would take their most notable achievement and employ it in a way that would be potentially counterproductive is a sign that the mindset of all the president’s men is so aggressive, so hyper-partisan, so mean-spirited and so desperate that they are acting in ways that are amateurish and self-defeating. It might also be a sign that Obama has so few genuine accomplishment to his name that when he actually is able to identify one, he mishandles it. They don’t have enough practice to know what to do with a real achievement.
I have felt for some time that the way in which Obama is running his campaign – splenetic, surly, petty, distracting, and dishonest – would end up doing significant damage to the president. It would diminish him in the eyes of the public, who actually do hold their presidents to certain standards of behavior, and undercut his impression as a likeable and essentially decent person.
You can’t use a (figurative) pick axe on your opponent day after day without chipping away at your own image. Jimmy Carter (who ran a very negative, and at times vicious, campaign against Ronald Reagan) discovered this in 1980. So will Barack Obama in 2012.
You failed to mention Ariana Huffington's negative reaction — perhaps the strongest of all, as she described the behavior as "despiccable."
Good news: Based upon his interview last night with Jonah Goldberg, Piers Morgan is A-OK with how Obama's played this card.
Obama has NO CLASS and clearly he's got nobody around him who's got any class. n nThat's what this misplaced slam at Romney was, very much beneath the dignity of the office. n nEven hubby asked "Doesn't he have any one around who can help him?" meaning Obama, and all I could say was: I've been asking that since he gave the DVDs to poor old Gordon Browne. n
These people always overreach. They can't help it, they have egos honed by years of Chicago-style political shenanigans. They are shameless and utterly lacking in good taste.
> crass politicization [...] so aggressive, so hyper-partisan, so mean-spirited and so desperate [...] n> amateurish and self-defeating [...] splenetic, surly, petty, distracting, and dishonest n nObama has struck some nerve indeed! I think the palpable anger is due to the realization the GOP — Romney & Rubio — is wildly incoherent and powerless on this issue now, and also because the Dems are using tricks from the GOP playbook. This is the sort of stuff that Bush, Cheney, Rudy Giuliani used to do all the time in 2002-2008. n nMARCU$
> Obama has so few genuine accomplishment to his name that when he actually is able n> to identify one, he mishandles it. n nEr, sure, Peter … by all means let's keep Bin Laden and the way this issue has been handled in the news for a few more days (rather than e.g. the economy). I am sure this will hurt the Obama campaign a great deal:-) By all means, let's also look back at the George W. Bush years while we're dealing with the subject of foreign policy, and let's discuss whether most Americans would prefer a return to the neocon era. n n n