The death of 9/11 architect Osama bin Laden will boost President Barack Obama and rekindle bipartisanship not seen since the attacks in New York and Washington. However, the economy will eventually re-emerge as the issue in the 2012 elections, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza predicts in his column,
The Fix.
The event could dominate the news for weeks to come and “will have a massive — although yet-to-be-fully determined — impact on the political landscape of the country.” Cillizza predicted a “partisan putting aside.”
“In the wake of that terrorist attack, there was an extended period of bipartisanship — or, perhaps more accurately, non-partisanship — in the political world. The early reaction to bin Laden’s death suggests a similar putting aside of partisanship as a rallying effect takes hold in the country.” Cillizza added that how long that “spirit lasts is unknowable.”
Although bin Laden was hunted under three presidential administrations — Bill Clinton and George W. Bush before Obama — Obama gave the order that brought it about. That fact will strengthen the president’s image as a leader and “complicate attempts by Republican presidential candidates — at least in the near term — to attack Obama on any topic,” the Post said.
Nonetheless, “it will not likely fundamentally alter the over-arching issue of the 2012 election, which is, and is nearly-certain to remain, the economy.” Cillizza predicted that the economy will return slowly as the issue for the 2012 election.
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