If you attended the John Locke Foundation’s Headliner luncheon last week, you heard Stephen Hayes of Fox News and The Weekly Standard offer his perspective on the impact of Osama bin Laden’s death on President Obama’s re-election prospects.
In summary, Hayes believes the successful operation against bin Laden boosts the president’s chances, but Obama remains beatable.
Now, TIME’s Mark Halperin offers his own take on the same topic:
The 2012 campaign remains a referendum on Obama’s economic rather than national-security record. But the raid makes a second term more likely. The unambiguous triumph and show of strength will resonate on the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, and again in September 2012 on the eve of the election, regardless of what happens in the next 18 months. Every GOP challenger will face a higher expectation for managing complex national-security problems with the same sophistication that Obama has shown.
Halperin believes the bin Laden operation will have the greatest impact on Republican candidates who lack foreign policy experience, as well as those who are “perceived as undisciplined.” “The contenders whose standing is least affected: Mitt Romney and Mitch Daniels, since jobs and the economy are their bread and butter.”
