alan lictman and jack burkeman in our newsroom talking about the latest breaking news situation. i believe we left it off with alan and a question you asked. >> jack just answered the question how would you present this if you were the president. basically what he's saying is bipartisan, don't forget to thank the previous administration, but don't make this political. alan, what's your take? >> he's right on. you want to keep this 1,000 miles away from partisan politics. you don't want to gloat and you certainly don't want to overstate the case here because the danger of international terrorism is still very real whether osama bin laden bin is alive or not. my study of history shows that the american people are smart and shrewd. they recognize and they understand significant events around the world. you don't have to pound it into them and you certainly never want to put it into a partisan context. all of our great accomplishments in foreign policy and winning of world war ii, the camp david accords, the test ban treaty have all been recognized in a bipartisan way as aiding the s

we're speaking with alan lictman and jack burkeman, democratic and republican strategists. we're waiting for the president to address the east room of the white house to talk about the death of osama bin laden bin. jack, although you were saying this probably won't play such a role in the 2012 election cycle, it's in the media again. osama bin laden will be talked about in headlines the next several weeks, how did he die? how was it carried out? what happens to his body? what happens to al qaeda? do you think it is possible that under these very bizarre unique circumstances this could play a very pivotal role in the presidential election cycle? >> it gives obama a bump in his approval rating now which he desperately needs. the president is somewhere between 40 and 45% and falling. i think this stops that and i think this probably puts him up to 50% and maybe in the short term even higher. so he gets a bump that he desperately needs. now why is that important? keep in mind obama is not out of the woods and it had been possible for him to face a liberal democrat, it's still n