The rhetoric cup of hypocrisy overfloweth

The rhetoric cup is starting to overflow with hypocrisy.  Of course this is expected in politics, but I can hardly believe that the Republicans would go there.  Go where, you may ask?  Accusations that President Obama politicized the killing of Osama bin Laden. Whether he did or not is not really the question – it is the accusation that is jaw dropping when just eight years ago that the entire GOP presidential campaign, including the 2004 national convention, was organized around the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and George W. Bush’s response to them.

Is it short attention spans?  Failed memories?  Or just plain hypocrisy?  With the GOP entering the presidential campaign at a decided disadvantage on foreign policy, they seem to be grasping at straws to get a leg up.  So, accusations that Democrats are “weak” or Romney’s persistent and false claims that Obama “apologizes” for America are attempts to move back to the front of the pack.  However, it doesn’t seem to be working.

Yes, Obama played the ultimate presidential trump card. He visited our troops in Afghanistan on Tuesday, the anniversary of the bin Laden raid, and, addressed the nation from the scene of our longest war.  He understood the importance of bin Laden and he addressed the broad and sensible public desire to get our troops out of Iraq. Now, Obama’s focused on how to get a moderately satisfactory result in Afghanistan.  Public opinion seems to be on the side of getting out sooner. There are no grand plans to remake a region but a more realistic goal of preventing terrorist groups from regaining a foothold in the country.  With that, Obama is keeping his 2008 promises and has established himself as competent in foreign relations.  Something that will be hard for the GOP to combat over the next six months of the presidential campaign.