(Image source: The White House)
BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN AND ASHLEY CROCKETT
ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
You're watching multisource U.S. news analysis from Newsy.
With Osama bin Laden dead on President Obama’s watch -- do GOP candidates stand a chance in the 2012 election? It’s a question burning in the political blogosphere. The answer depends on who you ask.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll out has the president’s job approval rating at 56 percent -- up eight points since January.
The “bin Laden bump” might only temporarily boost the president’s ratings -- or it could mirror former President Clinton’s after the Oklahoma City bombing. The Hill explains there was a jump in Clinton’s ratings when he badly needed one -- and the same might happen for Obama.
“He will forever be known as the president who nailed Osama bin Laden, and that’s no small thing.”
Republicans and Democrats alike have publicly praised the president for the successful operation -- but GOP leaders say it won’t change the conversation in 2012 -- which they say will be all about the economy.
The Washington Post’s Chris Cilizza tells MSNBC - they’re probably right.
CHRIS CILIZZA: “People feel relieved that Osama bin Laden is no longer with us and this helps solidify the president on national security. Remember, that's been an attack Republicans have leveled against Democrats since 2001. This will help mitigate that for the president of the United States. So help at the margins. But not a fundamental change in what we'll be talking about.”
And Bloomberg’s Al Hunt agrees - the bin Laden bump will be short-lived.
“Oh, I think it will last about 17 hours and 8 minutes and maybe 44 seconds. ... They're very profound differences over taxes and medicare and deficits that exist between Republicans and Democrats. The history of these things is that there is a rather short shelf life to the transcending nature of foreign policy triumphs so I don't think this will be an exception.”
Republicans have long sought to cast the president -- and Democrats as a whole -- as weak on national security. Most analysts suggest that’ll be a hard line to keep pushing going forward -- but The New York Times caught up with a GOP pollster who says -- not necessarily.
“This is a significant accomplishment. There is absolutely no question about it... But the dynamic in terms of, what is the Obama Doctrine, are not necessarily the same thing. Now that this particular significant achievement has occurred, what does he do with it? Now where do we go from here?”
Still - Politico’s Jonathan Martin suggests at the very least -- it’ll re-focus the Republicans’ game plan -- and require the establishment to stop “flirting with the fringe.”
“In the span of 100 hours, the spectacle of a national discussion over President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate ... gave way to a moment of utmost seriousness... The hope among establishment Republicans is that the succession of events will trigger an end to what they see as the silly season...”
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