Obama defends touting bin Laden raid

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama gave a steely defense of his handling of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and his use of it to burnish his re-election credentials a year later, saying yesterday that it is appropriate to mark an anniversary that Republicans charge is being turned into a campaign bumper sticker.

He then jumped at the chance to portray presumed Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney as unprepared to make the kind of hard call required to send U.S. forces on that highly risky mission. Without mentioning Romney by name, Obama recommended looking at people's previous statements on the manhunt for the 9/11 mastermind.

Obama's re-election team has seized on a quote from Romney in 2007, when he said it was not worth moving heaven and earth to go after one person. Yesterday, Romney said he "of course" would have ordered bin Laden killed, but his campaign criticized Obama for turning the successful raid to political gain.

"I assume that people meant what they said when they said it," Obama said at a White House news conference with the Japanese prime minister. "That's been at least my practice. I said that I'd go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him, and I did. If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they'd do something else, then I'd go ahead and let them explain it."

Obama is using the anniversary to help maximize a narrative that portrays him as bold and decisive. Romney has sought to cast Obama as weak.

"It's unfortunate that President Obama would prefer to use what was a good day for all Americans as a cheap political ploy and an opportunity to distort Gov. Romney's strong policies on the war on terror," Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said yesterday. "President Obama's feckless foreign policy has emboldened our adversaries, weakened our allies, and threatens to break faith with our military."

Romney was scheduled to appear today in New York City with firefighters and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to help mark the anniversary of bin Laden's death.