After weeks of concentrating their attacks against US President Barack Obama on the economy, Republicans are branching out. They’re taking aim at his anti-terrorism policy.
“Just what is the administration’s overarching plan to take on the terrorist threat and to keep America safe?” asks House Republican leader John Boehner in a new Web video featuring ominous music, unsettling images and less than flattering photos of the president.
The production by the National Republican Congressional Committee is the latest part of a barrage in which former Vice President Dick Cheney, potential 2012 presidential contenders, Republican lawmakers and others seek to raise doubts about Obama’s early performance as commander in chief.
At times, the criticism is blunt, as when Cheney said Obama’s actions “raise the risk” of another terrorist attack like the one on Sept. 11, 2001.
At other moments, Republicans choose a less confrontational tone, posing uncomfortable questions.
Referring to the potential release of detainees now at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which Obama has pledged to close within a year, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell asked recently: “Will these trained terrorists be allowed to travel freely anywhere in the United States? What will their status be? Will they be allowed to stay here permanently?”
The robust new line of attack against the president coincides generally with the increased attention Obama has devoted to foreign policy issues in recent weeks.
At the same time, recent internal Republican polling suggests it is an area where Democrats are relatively weak, at least in contrast to domestic matters such as the economy, energy and education.
A poll by New Models, a firm with strong Republican ties, found that voters viewed Republicans and Democrats as equally competent in dealing with the war on terror, while Democrats are heavily favored on numerous domestic issues such as health care, energy and education.
In recent weeks, Republicans have seized on Obama’s handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at an international meeting, his overtures to Cuba and his purported bow to Saudi King Abdullah while in Europe.
His decision to close the Guantanamo prison has now been joined by a decision to ban torture by US interrogators and the release of formerly classified memos detailing the administration of former US president George W. Bush legal justification for waterboarding.
At a news conference last week, Obama signaled that he understood the stakes. Responding to a question about his decision to release the memos, he said, “Ultimately I will be judged as commander in chief on how safe I’m keeping the American people.”
Other times, Obama has been dismissive of his critics.
He was still out of the country, in Trinidad, when Republican senator John Ensign said it was “irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez,” the anti-US president of Venezuela.
Obama noted that Venezuela has a defense budget about one-six hundredth the size of the US’ and owns the oil company Citgo.
“It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States,” he said.
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