Is it so obvious that Romney would have made the call on bin Laden?

By Richard K. Barry

With the White House Corespondents' Dinner just concluded, we've all been having some fun talking about political humor. On that point, I have to give Mitt Romney credit for a good line. An obvious line, but still a good line.

It had to do with the suggestion, by Obama's team, that Romney might not have made the decision to go after bin Laden if he had been in a similar position.

Romney's comment was, "Even Jimmy Carter would have made that decision." Good one. It works because Republicans like to riff on their perception that Carter was reluctant to use military force during his presidency and also that he is a symbol of general liberal incompetence.

It's interesting to bring up Carter in the context of the bin Laden raid. Recall that it was Carter who ordered the raid to free American hostages in Iran, a mission that went terribly awry.

The difficulty of the decision by Obama was not whether he wanted to authorize a mission to kill bin Ladin but whether he was willing to take the political risk associated with failure, especially on a mission so deep inside Pakistan.

Maybe Mitt would have made that call, but considering his penchant for embracing both sides of every issue, maybe not.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)