OBAMA LINKS 2012 6-1-12

Obama to Hold Six Fundraisers in One Day- 5.31.12 http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/05/31/obama-hold-fundraisers-day/ With Republicans steamrollering ahead with a group of well-fed Super Pacs and an increasingly successful money effort by Mitt Romney, President Obama Friday will attend six fundraisers, a possible sign of budding desperation for a campaign that is lagging far behind its initial fundraising expectations. Obama will travel to Minneapolis, where he will ensconce himself at the Bachelor Farmer Restaurant for three successive fundraising events. Afterward, he moves on to Chicago for a fundraiser at the Chicago Cultural Center and then two events at what appear to be separate private residences. In April, Obama’s fundraising total actually declined by nearly $10 million from the $53 million he took in during March….. . President Obama’s Tortureless Alternative to Waterboarding- Killing Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will-NY TIMES -5.29.12 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?_r=2&partner=MYWAY&ei=5065 . WASHINGTON — This was the enemy, served up in the latest chart from the intelligence agencies: 15 Qaeda suspects in Yemen with Western ties . The mug shots and brief biographies resembled a high school yearbook layout. Several were Americans . Two were teenagers, including a girl who looked even younger than her 17 years. …………… Mr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war and torture, a nd then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding “kill list,” poring over terrorist suspects’ biographies on what one official calls the macabre “baseball cards” of an unconventional war. When a rare opportunity for a drone strike at a top terrorist arises — but his family is with him — it is the president who has reserved to himself the final moral calculation. “He is determined that he will make these decisions about how far and wide these operations will go,” said Thomas E. Donilon, his national security adviser. “His view is that he’s responsible for the position of the United States in the world.” He added, “He’s determined to keep the tether pretty short.” Nothing else in Mr. Obama’s first term has baffled liberal supporters and confounded conservative critics alike as his aggressive counterterrorism record. His actions have often remained inscrutable, obscured by awkward secrecy rules, polarized political commentary and the president’s own deep reserve. In interviews with The New York Times, three dozen of his current and former advisers described Mr. Obama’s evolution since taking on the role, without precedent in presidential history, of personally overseeing the shadow war with Al Qaeda. They describe a paradoxical leader who shunned the legislative deal-making required to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, but approves lethal action without hand-wringing. While he was adamant about narrowing the fight and improving relations with the Muslim world, he has followed the metastasizing enemy into new and dangerous lands. When he applies his lawyering skills to counterterrorism, it is usually to enable, not constrain, his ferocious campaign against Al Qaeda — even when it comes to killing an American cleric in Yemen, a decision that Mr. Obama told colleagues was “an easy one.” His first term has seen private warnings from top officials about a “Whac-A-Mole” approach to counterterrorism; the invention of a new category of aerial attack following complaints of careless targeting; and presidential acquiescence in a formula for counting civilian deaths that some officials think is skewed to produce low numbers. The administration’s failure to forge a clear detention policy has created the impression among some members of Congress of a take-no-prisoners policy. And Mr. Obama’s ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron P. Munter, has complained to colleagues that the C.I.A. ’s strikes drive American policy there, saying “he didn’t realize his main job was to kill people,” a colleague said. Beside the president at every step is his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, who is variously compared by colleagues to a dogged police detective, tracking terrorists from his cavelike office in the White House basement, or a priest whose blessing has become indispensable to Mr. Obama, echoing the president’s attempt to apply the “just war” theories of Christian philosophers to a brutal modern conflict…… . Barack Obama is facing his Jimmy Carter moment-Telegraph.UK.5.25.12 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/mitt-romney/9289994/Barack-Obama-is-facing-his-Jimmy-Carter-moment.html Until recently, Barack Obama’s re-election was regarded as inevitable – in the same way that summer follows spring, or a monsoon follows a hosepipe ban. The president’s poll lead over Mitt Romney was strong, while the

Republican’s character was assassinated by a primary fight that permanently spoiled the reputation of his party………………. But in the last two weeks, things have changed. Obama’s re-election is no longer guaranteed; some pollsters think it is unlikely. Day by day, the odds are improving that Mitt Romney will be the next President of the United States. What changed? For a start, voters are getting gloomier about the economy. Joblessness remains high and debt is out of control . According to one poll released this week, only 33 per cent of Americans expect the economy to improve in the coming months and only 43 per cent approve of the way that the president has handled it. Voters think Obama has made the debt situation and health care worse…… ….The president has tried to distract from America’s economic misery by playing up the so-called culture war. Earlier in the year he decided that he would force Catholic employers to provide contraception to their employees through their insurance plans, and he followed that swipe at social traditionalism by endorsing gay marriage. This embrace of Sixties liberalism has backfired. …..Rasmussen puts Obama only one point ahead; Gallup calls it a tie. With Romney doing better than the president in key swing states North Carolina and Florida, Gallup has publicly stated that Obama now has a higher chance of losing rather than winning………… ……In 1980, Democratic president Jimmy Carter faced an uphill struggle for re-election. Yet, despite an index of inflation and unemployment far higher than Obama’s, he was actually doing slightly better in the polls. In March of that year, Carter led his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, by around 25 per cent. By May, Gallup gave him a lead of 49 to 41 per cent – higher than Obama’s today. Carter’s advantage evaporated in the months that followed, but he regained ground in October and by the last week he was running even. None the less, Carter eventually suffered a landslide defeat. The scale of his humiliation was hidden by the fact that people were unwilling to commit themselves to the conservative Ronald Reagan until the very last minute. It was only when they went into the polling booth and weighed up all the hurt and humiliation of the past four years that they cast their vote against the president. It looks like Barack Obama will be the Jimmy Carter of 2012. . Obama, Hollande (France) agree on much - but not Afghanistan-REUTERS-5.18.12 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/18/us-obama-hollande-idUSBRE84H17Y20120518 (Reuters) - New French President Francois Hollande told President Barack Obama on Friday that he will stick by his pledge to withdraw France's troops from Afghanistan at year's end, a note of discord in an otherwise convivial first meeting between the two leaders. ….The euro zone is a main topic for the two-day talks Obama will host at the Camp David retreat in Maryland. The G8 summit of leaders of the world's leading economies will begin Friday evening. Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron will be among the participants. "We're looking forward to a fruitful discussion later this evening and tomorrow with the other G8 leaders about how we can manage a responsible approach to fiscal consolidation that is coupled with a strong growth agenda," Obama said. The comment underscored his solidarity with Hollande on the view that measures to spur economic growth - and not just fiscal austerity - are needed to fix Europe's economic woes. Obama added that solving the euro zone crisis was of "extraordinary importance, not only to the people of Europe, but also to the world economy." Hollande told Obama that growth must be a priority and said the two leaders discussed their concerns about Greece . "We share the same views, the fact that Greece must stay in the eurozone and that all of us must do what we can to that effect," he said. Obama and other U.S. officials have repeatedly pressed European leaders to do more to spur economic growth. Obama's support for Hollande's view could put pressure on Merkel, who has stressed the need for fiscal discipline to restore the health of the euro zone economies , even as voters have toppled belt- tightening governments……. . COMMENTS: Massagat wrote: May 18, 2012 It’s interesting that new French President is France’s First Socialist President in seventeen years and that President Obama has apparently made a good rapport with Hollande. . AnnieP1 wrote: May 18, 2012

Yes, Mr. Obama, multi-millionaire, and Mr. Hollande, who owns five houses on the Riveria, are very good at hiding the fact that they are the 1%. They are also very good at enlarging the government ruling class and using other people’s money to do it with. What a pair. . mmcglone wrote: May 18, 2012 ……of course they agree on much – they are both socialists . Obama's Literary Agent in 1991 Booklet- 'Born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii' ……….do not think he was born in Kenya, but that HE allowed others to represent this falsehood because it was to his benefit! The Vetting - Exclusive - Obama's Literary Agent in 1991 Booklet: 'Born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii' http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/17/The-Vetting-Barack-Obama-Literary-Agent-1991-Born-in- Kenya-Raised-Indonesia-Hawaii . Rev. Wright's Interview With Obama Book Author Ed Klein- FOX News -5.17.12 http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/05/16/hannity-exclusive-author-of-the-amateur-ed-klein-reveals-audio-of-his-interview-with- rev-wright-plus-more-explosive-details-about-obamas-inner-circle/ . Obama worth as much as $ 10 million –USA Today-5.15.12 http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/05/obama-worth-as-much-as-10-million/1 Three things are apparent from President Obama's annual financial disclosure statement, released today: He is a wealthy man, with assets of as much as $ 10 million. He has a hefty stake in JP Morgan Chase, the megabank that just made a bad $ 2 billion bet. Obama has an account worth between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million. Despite the nation's $ 15.6 trillion debt, he is a believer in government paper. More than half his assets are in Treasury bills and notes. The disclosure statement lists assets and liabilities in dollar ranges, so pinpointing the president's net worth is difficult. His assets appear to tally between $ 2.6 million and $ 9.9 million. He holds a mortgage on his Chicago home of $ 500,000 to $ 1 million. As was clear from Obama's income tax filing, much of his income continues to roll in from book royalties. The disclosure form lists $ 100,000 to $ 1 million in royalties from Dreams from My Father , $ 100,000 to $ 1 million from Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters , and $ 50,000 to $ 100,000 from The Audacity of Hope. Vice President Biden, on the other hand, isn't all that wealthy. His financial disclosure statement includes less than $ 1 million in assets -- and as much as $ 1.5 million in liabilities, including between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million on his Wilmington home. . Obama Has Over $ 500,000 with JP Morgan Chase-Weekly Standard-5.15.12 http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-has-over-500000-jp-morgan-chase_645021.html . Obama-Rev Jeremiah Wright-The ‘bribe’ to silence Wright-NY Post – 5.13.12 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/the_bribe_to_silence_wright_io9jneobl3fUF0cb7LpcNM#ixzz1ulY2GRw6 When sermons of Obama’s Chicago pastor, Jeremiah Wright, surfaced during the Iowa primaries, it threatened to derail Obama’s campaign. ABC aired one where Wright screamed, “Goddamn America!” Edward Klein interviewed Wright, who told him Obama’s team tried to buy his silence. ‘Man, the media ate me alive,” Wright told me when we met in his office at Chicago’s Kwame Nkrumah Academy. “After the media went ballistic on me, I received an e-mail offering me money not to preach at all until the November presidential election.” “Who sent the e-mail?” I asked Wright. “It was from one of Barack’s closest friends.” “He offered you money?” “Not directly,” Wright said. “ He sent the offer to one of the members of the church, who sent it to me .” “How much money did he offer you?” “One hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Wright said. “Did Obama himself ever make an effort to see you?” “Yes,” Wright said. “Barack said he wanted to meet me in secret, in a secure place. And I said, ‘You’re used to coming to my home, you’ve been here countless times, so what’s wrong with coming to my home?’ So we met in the living room of the parsonage of Trinity United Church of Christ, at South Pleasant Avenue right off 95th Street, just Barack and me. I don’t know if he had a wire on him. His security was outside somewhere.

“And one of the first things Barack said was, ‘I really wish you wouldn’t do any more public speaking until after the November election.’ He knew I had some speaking engagements lined up, and he said, ‘I wish you wouldn’t speak. It’s gonna hurt the campaign if you do that.’ “And what did you say?” I asked. “I said, ‘I don’t see it that way. And anyway, how am I supposed to support my family?’ And he said, ‘Well, I wish you wouldn’t speak in public. The press is gonna eat you alive.’ “Barack said, ‘I’m sorry you don’t see it the way I do. Do you know what your problem is?’ And I said, ‘No, what’s my problem?’ And he said, ‘You have to tell the truth.’ I said, ‘That’s a good problem to have. That’s a good problem for all preachers to have. That’s why I could never be a politician.’ “And he said, ‘It’s going to get worse if you go out there and speak. It’s really going to get worse.’ “And he was so right.” . Around world, Obama's presidency a disappointment –AP-5.12.12 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_WORLD_VIEW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-05- 12-02-30-29 In Europe, where more than 200,000 people thronged a Berlin rally in 2008 to hear Barack Obama speak, there's disappointment that he hasn't kept his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, and perceptions that he's shunting blame for the financial crisis across the Atlantic…………… . Clinton said ‘Obama is an amateur”- encouraged Hillary to run in 2012 Primaries-NY POST-5.11.12 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bill_blockbuster_an_amateur_XJHYdaV5LT1vpr5I39IKrN#ixzz1uaKwnb8k Bill Clinton thought so little of President Obama — mocking him as an “amateur” — that he pressed his wife last summer to quit her job as secretary of state and challenge him in the primaries, a new book claims, “The country needs you!” the former president told Hillary Clinton, urging her to run this year, according to accounts of the conversation included in Edward Klein’s new biography of Obama. The title of Klein’s explosive, unauthorized bio of Obama, “The Amateur” (Regnery Publishing), was taken directly from Bill Clinton’s bombshell criticism of the president, the author said. Barack Obama,” Bill Clinton said, according to book excerpts, “is an amateur.” The withering criticism is incredible, given the fact that Bill Clinton is actively campaigning for Obama’s re- election. But according to the book, Bill Clinton unloaded on Obama and pressed Hillary to run against her boss during a gathering in the ex-president’s home office in Chappaqua last August that included longtime friends, Klein said. “The economy’s a mess, it’s dead flat. America has lost its Triple-A rating . . . You know better than Obama does,” Bill said. ……………. . Romney 50% - Obama 43% -Backlash-Rasmussen.5.11.12 http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows Mitt Romney earning 50% of the vote and President Obama attracting 43% support. Four percent (4%) would vote for a third party candidate, while another three percent (3%) are undecided. . President Obama's former doctor claims that the president lacks passion, feeling and humanity -5.11.12 – Human Events http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51433 In a revealing new book, The Amateur , author Edward Klein interviews President Barack Obama’s physician, Dr. David Scheiner, MD, who blasts the president’s health care plan and says that President Obama has an “academic detachment” that he could never break through. The doctor fears that if the health care plan is “the failure” he believes it will be, because of runaway costs and other problems, then any health reform will be set back for years to come. These are only a few of many reveals in Klein’s book, which makes the case that President Obama is not the political machine that people fear, but an amateur with a messianic complex who is completely out of his depth. In an exclusive preview of The Amateur by Human Events, Obama’s longtime physician reveals the lack of humanity in Obama’s character and carelessness with which he enacted the entirely politicized health insurance reform, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called ObamaCare……. . GALLUP: ROMNEY RETAKES LEAD... Romney 46% to Obama 45% http://www.gallup.com/poll/150743/Obama-Romney.aspx . Mitt Romney’s Campaign Put A Damper On Obama’s Big Day -5.6.12 http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/how-mitt-romneys-campaign-put-a-damper-on-obama

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Saturday was supposed to be President Barack Obama’s day, dominated by headlines of successful campaign holding its first rally. Instead, reports prominently included references to thousands of empty seats at the president’s first rally here — just as the Romney campaign wanted it. At The Ohio State University, over 5,000 seats in the 20,000-person venue went unfilled on the upper seating deck and behind the press cameras —a sharp contrast to Obama’s events in 2008, and even a 2010 event with then-Gov. Ted Strickland which drew 35,000. ABC News had reported Saturday morning that the campaign expected “overflow” crowds at each event, crowds which never did materialize. The New York Times quoted Obama senior adviser David Plouffe, not about the president’s remarks, but about the crowd size — with reporter Mark Landler comparing the rallies to “a concert by an aging rock star.” Reporters had some help in noticing the empty seats. Romney spokespeople made it into both events, waiting in line like everyone else. They worked their way close to the press risers, ready to provide rapid response to Obama’s speech. Romney Deputy Press Secretary Ryan Williams was in the audience at the OSU rally, and tweeted a picture of the empty seats — which instantly got picked up by conservative blogs. After Obama’s remarks he was swarmed by local reporters, and after giving them a standard response to the speech, he commented on the empty seats………….. … But as the Romney campaign sees it, they had the last laugh — with Obama falling short of his own campaign’s expectations. “They spent the day defending why they couldn’t sell-out the arena, not pushing their own message, so that was a big win for us,” one Romney aide said. . Obama Launches Campaign in Empty Arena –Breitbart-5.5.12 http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/05/obama-empty-arena Barack Obama launched his campaign in unspectacular fashion today at Ohio State University , the largest college in the crucial swing state . A photo posted to twitter by Mitt Romney's campaign spokesman Ryan Williams reveals sparse attendance . The above image, according to Williams, was taken during the President's first official campaign speech. During the speech, Obama ripped into the presumptive GOP nominee and discussed nation building at home , but the most newsworthy item of the day was not the talking points Obama delivered: it was the crowd... or lack thereof. According to ABC News , the Obama campaign had expected an "overflow" of people. Instead, the arena looked half-empty . The Columbus Dispatch reports that Obama organizers even had people move from the seats to the floor of the gym in order to project a larger crowd on television. ……………. . Real Heros Don’t Brag- Obama Spikes the Ball- Over and Over 5.12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsrSAqRrCc0&feature=player_embedded . Divider-in-Chief – Krauthammer-5.3.12 http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/298909/divider-chief-charles-krauthammer To the president, we are all just sects with quarrels to be exploited for political gain. …Ethnicity, race, gender, class. One more box to check: the young. Just four years ago, they swooned in the aisles for Obama. No longer. Not when 54 percent of college graduates under 25 are unemployed or underemployed. How to shake them from their lethargy? Fear again. Tell them, as Obama repeatedly does, that Paul Ryan’s budget would cut Pell Grants by $ 1,000 each, if his domestic cuts were evenly distributed. (They are not evenly distributed, making the charge a fabrication. But a great applause line.) Then warn that Republicans would double the interest rate on student loans. Well, first, Mitt Romney has said he would keep them right where they are. Second, as the Washington Post points out, this is nothing but a recycled campaign gimmick from 2006, when Democrats advocated (and later passed) a 50 percent rate cut that gratuitously squanders student aid by subsidizing the wealthy as well as the needy…………. . Obama's Afghan trip-14,000 miles for brief remarks lacking one crucial word-Investors.Com.5.2.12 http://news.investors.com/article/609958/201205020818/obama-visits-afghanistan-to-talk-troop-withdrawal- speech-text.htm?p=full As usual with this president, Obama's trip to and speech from Afghanistan had way more to do with politics than any real substance.

Seven thousand miles, one way, is a long journey to share war remarks with countrymen that he should have and could have shared back home many months ago. Despite the administration's best backgrounding sales efforts, the document he signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a meaningless basic agreement to talk later about forging a real agreement. Nothing was essentially changed by what the media lovingly called his "secret trip" to the war zone, which was simply unannounced for security reasons. The remarks (Scroll down for the full text, as usual) were well-written, even with literary flourishes about a new dawn coming as the president spoke at 4 a.m. Afghan time. He wanted to avoid any sense of "Mission Accomplished." And at 11 minutes, blessedly brief for the Real Good Talker. Here's what Obama got politically from this stagecraft: Bonus public attention focused on the Osama bin Laden assassination anniversary. Photos of troops clamoring for his fist bumps. An entire day focused on him, his words and non-stop talk of the 10-year war winding down. An entire news day, one of only 189 precious ones left before Nov. 6, not focused on Solyndras, prostitution scandals, GSA parties, $5 trillion in new national debt, no federal budget for three years running , high unemployment, sluggish growth, legal crucifixions nor Mitt Romney. Never mind the Kabul explosions, killing at least six, a couple of hours after his brief visit…. . Obama - 'New York girlfriend' was composite –POLITICO-5.2.12 http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/05/obama-ny-girlfriend-was-composite-character-122272.html One of the more mysterious characters from President Obama's 1995 autobiography Dreams From My Father is the so-called 'New York girlfriend.' Obama never referred to her by name, or even by psuedonym, but he describes her appearance, her voice, and her mannerisms in specific detail. But Obama has now told biographer David Maraniss that the 'New York girlfriend' was actually a composite character, based off of multiple girlfriends he had both in New York City and in Chicago. "During an interview in the Oval Office, Obama acknowledged that, while Genevieve was his New York girlfriend, the description in his memoir was a “compression” of girlfriends , including one who followed Genevieve [Cook] when he lived in Chicago," Maraniss writes in his new biography , an excerpt of which was published online today by Vanity Fair. . "In Dreams from My Father, Obama chose to emphasize a racial chasm that unavoidably separated him from the woman he described as his New York girlfriend," Maraniss writes, offering a passage from the book in which they go to see a play by a black playwright: One night I took her to see a new play by a black playwright. It was a very angry play, but very funny. Typical black American humor. The audience was mostly black, and everybody was laughing and clapping and hollering like they were in church. After the play was over, my friend started talking about why black people were so angry all the time. I said it was a matter of remembering—nobody asks why Jews remember the Holocaust, I think I said—and she said that’s different, and I said it wasn’t, and she said that anger was just a dead end. We had a big fight, right in front of the theater. When we got back to the car she started crying. She couldn’t be black, she said. She would if she could, but she couldn’t. She could only be herself, and wasn’t that enough. "None of this happened with Genevieve," Maraniss writes. "She remembered going to the theater only once with Barack, and it was not to see a work by a black playwright. When asked about this decades later, during a White House interview, Obama acknowledged that the scene did not happen with Genevieve. “It is an incident that happened,” he said. But not with her. He would not be more specific, but the likelihood is that it happened later, when he lived in Chicago. “ That was not her,” he said. “That was an example of compression I was very sensitive in my book not to write about my girlfriends, partly out of respect for them. So that was a consideration. I thought that [the anecdote involving the reaction of a white girlfriend to the angry black play] was a useful theme to make about sort of the interactions that I had in the relationships with white girlfriends. And so, that occupies, what, two paragraphs in the book? My attitude was it would be dishonest for me not to touch on that at all … so that was an example of sort of editorially how do I figure that out?”" Broadway Books, a division of Random House's Crown Publishing Group, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. . SEALs slam Obama for using them as 'ammunition' in bid to take credit for bin Laden killing during election campaign –Daily Mail UK – 5.1.12 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137636/SEALs-slam-Obama-using-ammunition-bid-credit-bin-Laden- killing- election-campaign.html#ixzz1tcTfwTeC Serving and former US Navy SEALs have slammed President Barack Obama for taking the credit for killing Osama bin Laden and accused him of using Special Forces operators as ‘ammunition’ for his re- election campaign. The SEALs spoke out to MailOnline after the Obama campaign released an ad entitled ‘One Chance’.

In it President Bill Clinton is featured saying that Mr Obama took ‘the harder and the more honourable path’ in ordering that bin Laden be killed. The words ‘Which path would Mitt Romney have taken?’ are then displayed. Besides the ad, the White House is marking the first anniversary of the SEAL Team Six raid that killed bin Laden inside his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan with a series of briefings and an NBC interview in the Situation Room designed to highlight the ‘gutsy call’ made by the President……….. …..Ryan Zinke, a former Commander in the US Navy who spent 23 years as a SEAL and led a SEAL Team 6 assault unit, said: ‘ The decision was a no brainer. I applaud him for making it but I would not overly pat myself on the back for making the right call. ‘I think every president would have done the same. He is justified in saying it was his decision but the preparation, the sacrifice - it was a broader team effort.’ Mr Zinke, who is now a Republican state senator in Montana, added that MR Obama was exploiting bin Laden’s death for his re-election bid. ‘The President and his administration are positioning him as a war president using the SEALs as ammunition. It was predictable.’ ………. Campaigning in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Mr Romney responded to a shouted question by a reporter by saying: ‘Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order .’ A serving SEAL Team member said: ‘Obama wasn’t in the field, at risk, carrying a gun. As president, at every turn he should be thanking the guys who put their lives on the line to do this. He does so in his official speeches because he speechwriters are smart. ‘But the more he tries to take the credit for it, the more the ground operators are saying, “Come on, man!” It really didn’t matter who was president. At the end of the day, they were going to go.’ Chris Kyle, a former SEAL sniper with 160 confirmed and another 95 unconfirmed kills to his credit, said: ‘The operation itself was great and the nation felt immense pride. It was great that we did it. ‘But bin Laden was just a figurehead. The war on terror continues. Taking him out didn’t really change anything as far as the war on terror is concerned and using it as a political attack is a cheap shot. ‘In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn’t allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe.’ ………………