Thaindian News

Washington, Nov 8 (ANI): US President Barack Obama has a good chance of being re-elected in 2012 provided he makes progress in Afghanistan, adopts a tougher line against Iran, the economy improves and there are no major terrorist attacks in the United States, a senior Republican has claimed.

Senator Lindsey O. Graham from South Carolina, who has become a leading GOP national security spokesman, said that if Obama is looking for cooperation with Republicans, a continued U.S. military effort in Afghanistan is “one area where Republicans feel comfortable standing by the president” and are likely to give him more support than many in his own party, the Washington Post reports.

“The Republican Party is going to have two wings. The isolationist wing, and the wing led by Senator John McCain [Ariz.], Graham and Senator Jeff Sessions [Ala.] that says you’d better stay involved in the world because if you do disengage, you’ll regret it,” he said.

Graham further stated that if Obama “does a good job of keeping us safe, I would not be surprised if he did get re-elected if the economy rebounds,” and added that by 2012 it would be clear whether progress is being made in Afghanistan and whether Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been checked.

Repeating comments he has made before on Iran, Graham said Obama would earn Republican backing if he went beyond sanctions and made “abundantly clear that all options are on the table. And we know what that means. If the day ever came” when Iran developed a bomb, he said, he would advise Obama to “not just neutralize their nuclear program . . . but to sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard,”

“In other words, neuter that regime. Destroy their ability to fight back,” he added. (ANI)