President Obama and his handlers probably tried to keep his Thursday visit to New York City’s World Trade Center from looking like a campaign trip but rather as a solemn event to lay a wreath at ground zero to show his appreciation for the courage and skill of the Navy SEALs and intelligence officials who planned and executed the daring and successful raid to kill Osama bin Laden.

He also found time to meet and visit with New York City firemen and police officers and with relatives of those killed in the Trade Center attack.

It always is an honor to meet and visit with the president, but one has to wonder if the relatives, as well as the police and firemen, would have rather had the opportunity to meet with representatives of the SEALs and Central Intelligence Agency who planned and executed the highly successful attack. They are the ones who helped bring some degree of closure to these relatives who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. They would have liked to be able to thank those who took part in the actual attack.

Obama admirers will defend the president’s visit while others will say it was a shrewd political maneuver taking advantage of the SEALs’ successful mission as a means to strengthen his political position for the upcoming presidential election.