The GOP, predictably, is crying foul, arguing that he shouldn't be politicizing the victory. And while many commentators are offering the obvious retort that you can bet your ass George W. Bush (or any Republican) would've done exactly that and more, I think the real question is suggested by Bill Clinton's point in the ad. If the mission had failed--perhaps disastrously--would Obama have gotten the blame and suffered the fallout? The answer seems fairly obvious (think JFK quoting the old saying--"Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan"--after the Bay of Pigs). So he gets to tout the success.
What's interesting is that Mitt Romney, brushing off suggestions that he wouldn't have been quite as bold as the President in making the final decision, seems to have taken a shot at Jimmy Carter. And that made Chris Matthews (who worked as a speechwriter for Carter) angry:
The reference, of course, is to the failed attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran in 1980:
Operation Eagle Claw (or Operation Evening Light or Operation Rice Bowl)[2] was an American military operation ordered by President Jimmy Carter to attempt to put an end to the Iran hostage crisis by rescuing 52 Americans held captive at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran on 24 April 1980. Its failure, and the humiliating public debacle that ensued, damaged American prestige worldwide and is believed by many, including Carter himself, to have played a major role in his defeat in the 1980 presidential election.[3]Imagine how today's Republican party would've reacted if something similar had happened over Pakistan during the raid to get bin Laden. I'm going to give Obama a little latitude here to do his solemn victory lap.
The plan called for a minimum of six helicopters; eight were sent in.[4] Two helicopters could not navigate through a very fine sand cloud (a haboob) which forced one helicopter to crash land and the other to return to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68). Six helicopters reached the initial rendezvous point, Desert One, but one of them had damaged its hydraulic systems. The spares were on one of the two helicopters that had aborted. From the early planning stages, it had been determined that if fewer than six operational helicopters were available, then the mission would be automatically aborted, even though only four were absolutely necessary for the operation.[4] In a move still debated,[5] the commanders on the scene requested to abort the mission; Carter gave his approval.
As the U.S. force prepared to leave Iran, one of the helicopters crashed into a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft containing fuel and a group of servicemen. The resulting fire destroyed the two aircraft involved[4] and resulted in the remaining helicopters being left behind and the deaths of eight American servicemen. The 5 Airmen who died that night were Major Richard L. Bakke, Major Harold L Lewis Jr., TSgt Joel C. Mayo, Major Lyn D. McIntosh, and Captain Charles T. McMillan. They were very experienced Airmen, all of them between 28 and 35 years of age. The 3 US Marines casualties were Sgt John D. Harvey, Cpl George N. Holmes Jr., and SSgt Dewey L Johnson. Operation Eagle Claw was one of the first missions conducted by Delta Force.[6]
