I’ve defended Barack Obama from what I consider to be spurious charges that he has failed to deliver on certain campaign promises. However my recent discussion on the hunt for bin Laden brings to mind that Obama has failed to deliver on one significant campaign promise. Recall…

As recently as October 7, in a presidential debate, Mr Obama said: “We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al-Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.”

This was no small matter. A chief criticism of Bush was that, for all his national security rhetoric and war mongering, he failed to capture the man behind the most egregious attack on America in 50 years. And many rank-and-file Democrats argued Obama would not continue this failure. Now, granted, Obama isn’t even halfway through his term, but one certainly doesn’t get the impression that capturing bin Laden is “our biggest national security priority.”

It’s true that Obama walked back from this promise almost instantly. After he won the election, but before he assumed office, he said (as can be seen from the page linked above)…

“My preference obviously would be to capture or kill him,” he said. “But if we have so tightened the noose that he’s in a cave somewhere and can’t even communicate with his operatives then we will meet our goal of protecting America.”

… which is very similar to comments Bush made on the subject. But that’s the point. Those who criticized Bush for his comments are obligated to apply those same criticisms to Obama.