gene, how does obama play this on the campaign trail, though? he does seem reluctant to advertise himself as the war president, if you will. can he do a better job of that? how would he do that? i think he could talk about it more, and point out the successes he has had. you know, one reason he may be reluctant to do that is there s still a question mark to how the afghanistan escalation is going to work out and how the united states is going to extricate itself? the president gets high marks on the handling of terrorism threats, 53% approve and 40% disapproved. ron, how do the republicans handle this politically? i don t think that they sound too well complaining about him getting osama bin laden or anything like that. how should they do this? i think this is one of the areas that should be nonpartisan. i think osama bin laden was one of the most brutal tie rants, and whether it was president bush or president obama, and president obama, i applaud him for that, but moving forw
is he missing an opportunity. eugene robinson, and rob christie, welcome to you both. good evening. eugene, he got osama bin laden, he pulled the trigger on the somali pirates, he doubled down in afghanistan. what else did he do here? lots of stuff. he s been pretty good, it seems to me at sending troops overseas to do things. by traditional republican standards, how is obama doing as a war president? well, what he has done, i would say, ron, is neutralized the traditional republican attack on democrats that they are wusses who can t be trusted to defend america or project american military force the way republicans would. clearly obama is not hesitant to do so, and he s clearly rather skillful at doing so, because he s had these successes. i think that s the major political impact. ron, if george w. bush, or for that matter mitt romney had somehow nail osama bin laden orring flying those drone missions over pakistan, what would republicans be saying?
yesterday, where is john roland, we re talking about former tristate governors here with christie in the mix, too. i think giuliani would probably have more impact in a place like new hampshire. but i think it s uncertainly it s really uncertainly to whether or not either are going to run. the republican party is in a conservative place, and i m not sure why moderate politicians would have much appeal at this movement. we ll keep watching this, of course, as the debates and everything else proceed. thank you, charlie cook, and jonathan martin, appreciate you being here. thank you. coming up, george bush was good at dressing up and standing in front of the mission accomplished signs. president obama is good at accomplishing missions, so why isn t he making the most of being a war president? you re watching hardball, only on msnbc.
welcome back to hardball. the president said this on monday. in which is clear, the gadhafi regime is coming to an end, and the future of libya is in the hands of its people. his succeeds as a war president is unquestionable, initial to helping to take out two of the world s most well-known terrorists, he s presided over troof, and the wind-down in iraq, yet he seems reluctant to fully embrace the role as a war president. is he missing an opportunity. eugene robinson, and rob christ christie, welcome to you both. good evening. eugene, he got osama bin
gene, how does obama play this on the campaign trail, though? he does seem reluctant to advertise himself as the war president, if you will. can he do a better job of that? how would he do that? i think he could talk about it more, and point out the successes he has had. you know, one reason he may be reluctant to do that is there s still a question mark to how the afghanistan escalation is going to work out and how the united states is going to extricate itself? the president gets high marks on the handling of terrorism threats, 53% approve and 40% disapproved. ron, how do the republicans handle this politically? i don t think that they sound too well complaining about him getting osama bin laden or anything like that. how should they do this? i think this is one of the areas that should be