GOP may argue Obama weak on security

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Republican operatives say they see potential political hay in U.S. President Obama's response to the failed Christmas Day attack on an airplane.

Republicans congressional members and pollsters have been trying to craft an argument that Obama is weak on national security and now can point to last week's incident -- along with his decision to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison and intelligence gaps tied to November's massacre at Fort Hood, Texas -- as evidence of that flaw, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The U.S. economy and healthcare reform are the odds-on dominant themes for the looming 2010 midterm elections, but if the electorate has concerns about air travel safety and terrorism, Republican criticisms of Obama on national security could be "very influential," said Andrew Kohut, a pollster and president of the Pew Research Center.

"I don't know if it has legs, but it certainly has potential if it has legs," Kohut said. "It's one of the few cards that Republicans still continue to hold over the Democrats. It is something that is exploitable by them."

David Axelrod, Obama's senior adviser, said the GOP's hope to reclaim political clout based on the national security issue is weak.

"They can run on rhetoric," Axelrod told the Post. "We will run on our record when the time comes. ... The president's record, I think, is very clear and very strong. This president has taken the fight to al-Qaida in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Somalia, in Yemen. He has focused on the threat in a way that it hasn't been."