Arianna Huffington: President's bin Laden ad "despicable"
(CBS News) Arianna Huffington, founder and editor-in-chief of the The Huffington Post, called the Obama campaign's decision to tout the assassination of Osama bin Laden in a campaign advertisement "despicable." The ad questions whether presidential candidate Mitt Romney would have ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
"I don't think there should be an ad about that," Huffington said Monday on "CBS This Morning." "I think it's one thing to celebrate the fact that they did such a great job (with television specials). All that is perfectly legitimate. But to turn it into a campaign ad is one of the most despicable things you can do."
She added, "It's the same thing Hillary Clinton did with the 3 a.m. call. 'You're not ready to be commander-in-chief.' It's also what makes politicians and political leaders act irrationally when it comes to matters of war because they're so afraid to be called wimps, that they make decisions, which are incredible destructive for the country. I'm sure the president would not have escalated in Afghanistan if he was not as concerned, as Democrats are, that Republicans are going to use not escalating against him in a campaign."
(Watch Huffington's full "CTM" interview in the player below.)
"So in a campaign, aren't you supposed to tout your accomplishments of what you've done," Gayle King asked.
Huffington replied, "That's not just what the ad does. What the ad does is questions. ... (The ad) quotes a snippet from Romney and uses that to imply that Romney would not has been as decisive. There's no way to know whether Romney would have been as decisive. To actually speculate that he wouldn't be is, to me, not the way to run a campaign, on either side."
For Arianna Huffington's comment, watch the video in the player above.