Mitt Romney must exploit Benghazi assault to trump Barack Obama on foreign policy If he succeeds, Mr Romney can turn Benghazi into a broader referendum on Mr Obama's leadership both at home and abroad, where Republicans charge that on most major issues - Iran, Syria, Libya, Egypt and China - the Obama presidency has consistently failed to assert American predominance. Exploiting that opening is far from risk-free for Mr Romney. Twice this campaign he has attempted to make political capital out of the Benghazi debacle, and twice he has fallen - publicly and spectacularly- flat on his face. First, he called an ill-considered press conference within an hour of Ambassador Chris Steven's death being announced and was charged on all sides with playing politics with national security - an unforgivable sin. Then, in the second presidential debate in New York last week he rightly tried to tackle Mr Obama for "misleading" Americans over Benghazi, but failed to do his homework sufficiently about what the president had said in the Rose Garden and was embarrassingly corrected by the moderator. Mr Obama will no doubt remind him of these errors and his disastrous visit to Britain before the Olympics where he was scorned by both the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London, to paint Mr Romney as man who lacks the judgment needed for the highest office. He will characterise his opponent as a Cold War blowhard who still thinks (to quote Mr Romney himself) that Russia is America's "number one geopolitical foe." The president will ask a war-weary America whether it really wants a 'President Romney' whose foreign policy team is stuffed with Bush-era advisers whose gung-ho pronouncements risk igniting a trade war with China and a shooting war with Iran. Mr Romney will hope America sees his promise to take a firm hand with the mandarins and the ayatollahs as the promise of fresh leadership; Mr Obama will dismiss this as the bluster and the "loose talk" of a man who is either dangerous, or worse, bluffing. Whoever presses their case most convincingly will significantly increase the likelihood of being entrusted with the role of Commander-in-Chief when America votes this November 6.