In case you've forgotten, Barack Obama was the president who ordered the death of Osama bin Laden.
Thought Obama supporters might leave it up to voters to remember that for themselves? Think again. In his latest documentary-style extended campaign ad about the president, Oscar-winning "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim tries to make sure viewers keep it at the front of their minds until Election Day.
Guggenheim, who also directed the Obama ad that aired near the end of the 2008 election, asks voters to look at the last four years in their entirety, and not just at a given day's headlines. Narrator Tom Hanks asks, "How do we understand this president and his time in office? Do we look at the day's headlines? Or do we remember what we, as a country, have been through?"
That means reminding viewers that Obama made the call on OBL -- and ensuring that he doesn't become a one-termer despite a major military success, like the first President Bush did after the Gulf War.
But presidents who call attention to military victories walk a fine line. The second President Bush's critics derided his 2003 "Mission Accomplished" stunt as an attempt to prematurely reap political benefits from the situation in Iraq.
In a trailer for the Obama ad, which debuts March 15, Obama loyalists including David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, Vice President Joe Biden and others list his challenges and successes. They include facing an economic meltdown soon after taking office and fighting for health care for the uninsured.
Then Biden delivers the rhetorical kill shot: The bin Laden decision was Obama's alone.
