For a speech last week on energy policy, the White House arranged President Obama in front of a fighter jet at Andrews Air Force Base.
In a rally at Bagram Airfield in his first trip as president to Afghanistan, Obama wore an Air Force One leather bomber jacket, telling the cheering troops, “You inspire me.”
WIth two wars progressing reasonably well and a tough campaign ahead of him, the administration is highlighting Obama’s national security credentials — not traditionally a strong point for Democrats.
“They would be smart to do it,” said Clark Ervin, a national security expert at the Aspen Institute and former Bush administration official. “Iraq and Afghanistan are looking like successes right now, and it all goes counter to the general narrative that Democrats are soft on war.”
Obama appears increasingly at ease with the military trappings of his office — the rides on Air Force One and Marine One, and his status as commander in chief of the military. The presidential theme song, “Hail to the Chief,” is more frequently heard at Obama events.
Having campaigned on a tough critique of former President George W. Bush’s conduct of the two wars and promising to end them, Obama has more recently embraced the military cause.
“I want you to understand, there’s no visit that I considered more important than this visit I’m making right now, because I have no greater honor than serving as your commander in chief,” Obama said at Bagram. “And it is a privilege to look out and see the extraordinary efforts of America’s sons and daughters here in Afghanistan.”
To be sure, the president and first lady Michelle Obama have made supporting military families a priority.
But campaigning as a wartime president risks the support of a bloc of Democratic voters who oppose war, said David Swanson, a prominent anti-war activist and co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org.
“They are reaching a point where they can’t keep running against Bush and Cheney — those two as the enemy doesn’t work anymore,” Swanson said of the Obama administration. “And they can’t keep running against the war, since the Democratic Congress is funding war and the Democratic president is funding and expanding war.”
The risk is that anti-war Democrats will stay home in November, Swanson said.
Alienating a Democratic constituency isn’t new to Obama, although his war policies — like some other initiatives — often strive to accommodate both sides.
In Iraq, Obama opted to continue Bush’s troop surge and ultimately keep about 50,000 troops in Iraq, while drawing down two-thirds of U.S. troops in Iraq by August. Some Democrats objected to the plans for a residual force.
Obama last year announced a new plan for Afghanistan that rapidly increased troop levels, with a goal for starting a full withdrawal of U.S. troops in July 2011. Democrats, questioning whether the war is winnable, objected to another troop surge.
U.S. forces in June are expected to start a major new campaign to reclaim the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, and the Obama administration will soon ask Congress for an additional $33 billion for Afghanistan.
