President Barack Obama, the man Republicans claimed was too young, too idealistic and too inexperienced to lead, is becoming a foreign policy authority the likes of which the Oval Office has not seen since Dwight Eisenhower, a five-star general in the United States Army, nearly half-a-century ago.

Yesterday, the Pentagon confirmed the death of radical Muslim cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, a dangerous recruiter for the Al Qaeda organization.

Ibrahim Al-Asiri, al Qaeda’s top bomb maker and Samir Khan, the author of Inspire, the organization’s terrorist magazine — which helped to spread its anti-Western and anti-American message globally — were also killed in the CIA drone attack in Yemen.

WATCH REV. AL SHARPTON’S COVERAGE OF OBAMA’S NATIONAL SECURITY SUCCESS:

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Unlike some previous attacks, this one spared any innocent bystanders. And much like the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May, this attack was carried out with near surgical precision under the express and direct orders of President Obama. Though largely a military success, it comes with political implications, forcing members of the GOP to once again recognize, that this Democratic president continues to deliver results.

As the first American-born Al Qaeda leader placed on the CIA hit-list, Al-Awlaki was a unique threat and perhaps an even more significant one than bin Laden. Born in New Mexico and educated at Colorado State, Al-Awlaki was radicalized while preaching in American mosques, according to the 9/11 Commission report, and became an archetype of the home-grown jihadist. After the terror attacks in New York and Washington, he moved back to Yemen, his familial homeland, and began recruiting others like him.

According to the CIA he was in contact with Nidal Hasan, the man who killed 13 servicemen and women at Fort Hood in 2009. Al-Awlaki may have also recruited Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young man who attempted to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009. Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, who admitted to planting the Times Square car bomb last year, has cited al-Awlaki as an inspiration.

Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan in an interview with MSNBC’s Alex Witt said, “The president has been an effective leader in the war on terror and a decisive leader,” and any criticism from republicans “will fall on deaf ears.” Texas governor Rick Perry, a leading contender for the republican nomination, spoke in Atlanta yesterday congratulating the president and the military on their success. Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and flailing GOP presidential hopeful, said “President Obama did the right thing, and I praise him.”

Mitt Romney, the current frontrunner for the republican nomination, released a statement on Friday saying “I commend the president…our service members and our allies for their continued efforts to keep Americans safe.” In an interview with CNN’s John Johnson, New York Republican Congressman Peter King, normally a vocal critic, said “I would give the president a medal.”
The accolades are clearly warranted, but present a conundrum for the GOP’s anti-Obama narrative, which until now has claimed he was naive and ill-experienced. The president’s foreign policy record is formidable and fairly center-right, placing him in contention for the much coveted independent and conservative-Democratic votes that the GOP will need to win key states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.

In particular, frontrunners Romney and Perry, both former and current governors with no national security experience, will find it difficult to face Obama in debates where these skills will be called into question. This is, after-all, a country at war.

Republican sideshows like Sarah Palin, who during the 2008 campaign claimed that Barack Obama was “palling around with terrorists” because of his association with a former 1960s radical professor, will find it increasingly difficult to use similar tactics to portray Obama as unacceptable to American voters.

Likewise, Rush Limbaugh, the president’s leading attack dog on conservative radio, will be forced to admit that this president has done in three years, what Bush and Cheney squandered trillions to do in 8 years, and failed. Former president Bill Clinton, following the first World Trade Center bombing, also vowed to bring bin Laden to justice, but despite his inability to capture him, never received the kind of criticism that Obama has received throughout his time in office.

What these strikes convey is that President Obama has become adept at multi-tasking: developing the American Jobs Act, traveling across the country to build support for it, visiting cities and towns devastated by Hurricane Irene, managing the incalcitrant republican opposition in Congress, and taking political jabs from the aggressive Tea Party right, and a disillusioned left. All this, while protecting U.S. interests abroad and at home.

Ron Paul, the libertarian with perhaps the least likely chance of gaining the republican nomination, was among the few voices Twitter and on Facebook.