Obama Campaign: GOP Using 'Swift Boat' Tactics

We've arrived at this election's "Swift Boat" moment, at least according to President Obama's re-election campaign. A group of former US intelligence and Special Forces operatives launched a harsh media campaign against Obama yesterday, claiming Obama should not take credit for killing Osama bin Laden and admonishing him for "leaking information to the enemy." The latter "will get Americans killed," one Navy SEAL says in a video released by the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund. But Obama's team hit back quickly, accusing the GOP of using "'Swift Boat' tactics," a reference to the 2004 smear campaign against John Kerry.

"The Republicans are resorting to 'Swift Boat' tactics because when it comes to foreign policy and national security, Mitt Romney has offered nothing but reckless rhetoric," a campaign spokesperson says. Romney's "two major foreign policy speeches never even mentioned al-Qaeda once, and he hasn't outlined a plan for America's relations with a single region of the world. In 2008, the president said he'd end the war in Iraq in a responsible way and refocus on taking out al-Qaeda's leaders, and few would question that he's kept his word." The group running the campaign claims to be nonpartisan, but a number of its members have Republican ties, Reuters notes. (More President Obama stories.)