WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama drew praise from unlikely quarters Monday for pursuing a risky and clandestine mission to kill Osama bin Laden, a successful operation that interrupted the withering Republican criticism about his foreign policy, world view and his grasp of the office.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney declared, “The administration clearly deserves credit for the success of the operation.” Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York said, “I admire the courage of the president.” And Donald J. Trump declared, “I want to personally congratulate President Obama.”
The development came at a fortuitous time for Obama, who received the worst foreign policy rating of his presidency in a New York Times/CBS News poll last month, with 46 percent of respondents saying they disapproved of his handling of international affairs. But the long-term implications for the president were difficult to predict.
The nation’s unemployment remains relatively high. High gasoline prices are pinching consumer budgets. Seventy percent of Americans in the Times/CBS poll last month said the country is on the wrong track.
On Monday, there were few of the gestures of bipartisan unity that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Then, members of Congress stopped campaign fundraising, and dozens stood together and sang “God Bless America” on the Capitol steps.
On Monday, the two parties said roughly the same things but didn’t say them together.
“To those that seek to destroy freedom by preying on innocent human life, we will not rest until we bring you to justice,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a news conference with other top Republicans.
In his own press event, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that a “man who epitomized evil has been brought to justice.” Leaders from both parties praised the work done by President Obama and former President George W. Bush.
Leaders of both parties said the news of bin Laden’s death would not significantly alter the upcoming agenda, which is likely to focus on spending and debt.
“It’ll be a good feeling for a few days, maybe weeks, but as soon as we start debating the debt ceiling” that will dissipate, said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
The developments came at a key moment in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, with new prospective candidates such as Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana facing pressure to jump in. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., a former Utah governor who just returned from two years as ambassador to China to open a presidential run, found his efforts to trumpet his foreign policy experience immediately overshadowed.
“The president deserves and will receive credit for bin Laden being killed on his watch,” said Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist who advised Giuliani’s presidential bid four years ago. “Like September 11 and its aftermath, this is a moment that transcends politics, and anyone who tries to politicize this will not be well received by the electorate.”
Karl Rove, the Republican strategist for Bush, said that party’s crop of presidential aspirants would be wise not to be “churlish.” But he said he did not believe bin Laden’s capture would be a deciding issue in 2012.
“This will tend to cause a lot of people to say we got our job done,” Rove said, noting a similar reaction when Saddam Hussein came into U.S. custody in 2003. “This is a moment that will require him to say, ‘Here’s what needs to be done to prevail in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Yemen, in the broader war on terror.’ ”
John Ullyot, a former Marine intelligence officer who served as a Republican spokesman on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the operation was “a gutsy call because so much could have gone wrong.”
“The fact that Obama approved this mission instead of the safer option of bombing the compound was the right call militarily,” Ullyot said, “but also a real roll of the dice politically because of how quickly it could have unraveled.”
The Washington Post contributed to this article.
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