Top aides to President Obama said today the mission to kill Osama bin Laden is part of the record, and rejected Republican criticism that Obama overdid it in celebrating last week's one-year anniversary.
"The president hasn't been spiking the ball," said political adviser David Axelrod on ABC's This Week. "This was the one-year anniversary. It's part of his record. And it's certainly a legitimate part of his record to talk about."
Over on NBC's Meet The Press, Vice President Joe Biden said: "This is a signature moment in this president's administration."
ABC's Jake Tapper played Axelrod an anti-Obama ad from a group called Veterans For A Strong America, saying the president is politicizing what should have been a moment of national unity.
"Heroes don't seek credit," the ad says. "Heroes don't spike the football ... And heroes don't politicize their acts of valor."
Said Axelrod: "First of all, the president hasn't been spiking the ball. This was the one-year anniversary. It's part of his record. And it's certainly a legitimate part of his record to talk about."
Obama marked the anniversary in part by traveling Tuesday to Afghanistan to discuss U.S. plans to withdraw from that war.
Biden told NBC that the president also took that trip to sigh a new security partnership with Afghanistan's government.
On ABC, Axelrod pointed out that, during the 2008 campaign, Obama said he would do it what it took to catch or kill high value terrorist targets, including bin Laden.
Obama's decision to authorize a mission deep inside Pakistan won praise across the spectrum, he added.
Axelrod also noted that, had something gone wrong with raid, "you'd better believe the other side would be talking about it, and Mitt Romney would be the first one."
