Advisers to Mitt Romney on Thursday defended his sharp criticism of President Obama and said that the deadly protests sweeping the Middle East would not have happened if the Republican nominee were president. 
 
 “There’s a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you’d be in a different situation,” Richard Williamson, a top Romney foreign policy adviser, said in an interview. “For the first time since Jimmy Carter, we’ve had an American ambassador assassinated.” 
 
 Williamson added, “In Egypt and Libya and Yemen, again demonstrations — the respect for America has gone down, there’s not a sense of American resolve and we can’t even protect sovereign American property.” 
 
 The aggressive approach by Romney’s campaign thrust the issue of foreign policy to the forefront of the presidential campaign a day after the Republican candidate was widely criticized for blasting Obama while U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya were under attack. 
 
 Criticism from Republicans over their nominee’s handling of the situation overseas quieted Thursday, with influential voices in the party’s foreign policy establishment rallying to Romney’s defense. And it was Obama who faced criticism for saying that he did not consider Egypt an ally — a comment that his administration struggled to explain. 
 
 “The president can’t even keep track of who’s our ally or not. This is amateur hour — it’s amateur hour,” said Williamson, a former assistant secretary of state and ambassador. He was among those who counseled Romney to respond aggressively on Tuesday night and was offered by the campaign to speak about the candidate’s foreign policy. 
 
 Williamson was referring to Obama’s interview Wednesday night with Telemundo in which the president said that the U.S. relationship with Egypt was a “work in progress.” 
 
 “I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” Obama told Telemundo. “They’re a new government that is trying to find its way.” 
 
 Administration officials tried throughout the day to parse Obama’s statement on Egypt without appearing to contradict him. 
 
 Obama was right in “diplomatic and legal terms,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, because “ ‘ally’ is a legal term of art” that refers to countries with which the United States has a mutual defense treaty such as the NATO alliance. 
 
 But the United States tried to work around just that problem in 1989, creating the designation of “major non-NATO ally” for countries on which it wanted to bestow approval, weapons sales and defense cooperation prohibited to non-treaty nations. Egypt — along with Israel, Australia, Japan and South Korea — was among the first countries to be so designated that year. 
 
 Pressed to explain why a “major non-NATO ally” is not an ally, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland repeated the treaty argument, then referred reporters to the White House. Later asked whether the United States still considers Egypt a “major non-NATO ally,” Nuland said “Yes.” 
 
 At campaign stops in Nevada and Colorado, Obama avoided any mention of Romney as he paid tribute to those who lost their lives in Libya and again promised to track down their killers. 
 
 But his campaign responded by noting that the protests this week were triggered by the video, not by U.S. policy, and that the video likely would still have been produced if Romney had been president. And they noted that there have been attacks on Americans under every president in recent history, including Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. 
 
 “It is astonishing that the Romney campaign continues to shamelessly politicize a sensitive international situation,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said. “The fact is that any president of either party is going to be confronted by crises while in office, and Governor Romney continues to demonstrate that he is not at all prepared to manage them.” 
 
 Romney himself struck a more measured tone and tried to refocus on his core economic argument on the campaign trail Thursday in Northern Virginia. He did not mention Obama by name, but suggested that the president was a weak commander in chief and unreliable guardian of American strength abroad. 
 
 “As we watch the world today, sometimes it seems that we’re at the mercy of events instead of shaping events, and a strong America is essential to shape events,” Romney said at a rally in Fairfax County. 
 
 The approach on foreign policy by the Romney campaign is a signal that it feels it can gain some advantage in an area that has so far it has found problematic. 
 
 In addition to the criticism Romney received on Wednesday, he came under fire two weeks ago for failing to mention the war in Afghanistan or acknowledge U.S. troops serving abroad in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. In July, his tour through Europe and the Middle East was marred by missteps. And he has been ridiculed for his assertion that Russia is, “without question, our No. 1 geopolitical foe.” 
 
 “We were ready for a major debate on this,” Eliot A. Cohen, a former State Department official and foreign policy adviser to Romney, said in an interview. “It just happened to blow up now. It’s there, and it’s in some ways a clarifying moment.” 
 
 In debating foreign policy with Obama, Romney is perceived to be at a disadvantage. The president consistently has outpolled Romney on the issue, and he earned high marks for the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. 
 
 Stuart Stevens, Romney’s chief political strategist, rejected the suggestion that voters may question Romney’s temperament and commander-in-chief credentials because of his early and aggressive response to the attacks in Egypt and Libya. 
 
 “It’s not an issue,” Stevens said in an interview. “It was an issue with Barack Obama four years ago, given the fact that he was younger and had little experience, and given his answers in the debates. He had stumble after stumble with foreign policy. Mitt Romney hasn’t. He’s run for president twice now and it’s not been his problem.” 
 
 Romney’s policy advisers laid out steps that a President Romney would have taken in the Middle East that they said Obama has not done. 
 
 “What would the governor do differently? It really starts with having a vision for the future of the Middle East, supporting those that have been shortchanged by the administration,” Mitchell Reiss, a top Romney policy adviser, said in an interview. “There are things that we can do in terms of what we say, the constancy of what our vision is — pluralism, respect for law, human dignity — these are things that you don’t hear from the administration, and the people in the region want to hear that.” 
 
 Romney’s campaign hopes to force a broader debate about America’s role in the world and to argue that while Obama has been successful in fighting terrorism, his foreign policies have resulted in waning U.S. influence abroad. 
 
 “We’ve got Barack Obama with a risk-adverse, lead-from-behind approach, and how’s that worked?” Williamson said. “We not only have the events in Egypt and Libya and now in Yemen, but we have in Syria 20,000-plus people killed, many by means of various atrocities by a regime, and the Obama administration is missing in action.” 
 
 Amy Gardner in Colorado and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| 4 years ago 
 
 (CNN) - Mitt Romney's decision to comment on the diplomatic attacks in the Middle East is revealing a split among Republicans who differ over the GOP nominee's remarks on the violence. 
 
 "Too quick to politicize over faulty reporting initially. Too quick to politicize (the) death of foreign service officers. Makes him appear not ready," is how one top adviser to John McCain's 2008 campaign put it to CNN. 
 
 
 
 - Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker 
 
 - Check out the CNN Electoral Map and Calculator and game out your own strategy for November. 
 
 But other Republican strategists felt emboldened by Romney's swift and severe condemnation of how the administration's handling of the crisis. 
 
 "This could be a game changer," GOP strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos said. "Romney has to go at this and make it clear that he is doing it not for political gain but because weak, apologetic leadership is dangerous for the country." 
 
 Castellanos was an adviser to Romney during the 2008 presidential campaign, but does not work for the candidate in 2012. 
 
 Late last night, Romney released a statement that was initially embargoed until midnight in keeping with the campaign's decision to avoid political attacks on the president on September 11th. But within minutes the embargo was lifted. 
 
 "It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," Romney said in the statement. 
 
 Romney later explained at a morning news conference he was referring to a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that condemned a filmmaker for mocking Islam. However, the embassy's statement came out before the violence erupted. (The embassy confirmed the statement on Twitter after the walls of the embassy were breached.) 
 
 In response to questions from reporters about whether he had commented too soon in his initial statement, before the confirmation of the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, Romney called the queries a "hypothetical." He noted the administration backed away from the Embassy's statement. 
 
 "They clearly sent mixed messages to the world," Romney said. 
 
 Other Republican leaders took a more cautious approach in their statements on the violence. 
 
 "Eleven years after September 11, this is a jolting reminder that freedom remains under siege by forces around the globe who relish violence over free expression, and terror over democracy," Boehner said in the statement. ||||| 6 years ago 
 
 De Pere, Wisconsin (CNN) - Facing criticism for its aggressive and politically-charged response to Tuesday's violent attacks on the American embassies in Egypt and Libya, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is quietly advising Republicans how to respond to questions about the campaign's handling of the episode. 
 
 In talking points currently being pushed to Republican leaders and top surrogates, the Romney campaign recommends attacking President's Obama "foreign policy of weakness" and dismissing questions about how the campaign responded to the crisis last night. 
 
 
 
 A sample response, as proposed by the Romney campaign officials in Boston: 
 
 "Did Governor Romney 'jump the gun' last night in releasing his statement?" 
 
 "No. It is never too soon to stand up for American values and interests." 
 
 Read the full list of message points from the Romney campaign, provided to CNN by a GOP source, below: 
 
 MESSAGE POINTS: Attacks On America's Diplomatic Missions In Libya And Egypt 
 
 Surrogate Message Points: Attacks On America’s Diplomatic Missions In Libya And Egypt 
 
 Top-Line Message: 
 
 - We join all Americans in grieving for the four American patriots who lost their lives in yesterday’s attacks and send our condolences to their loved ones. 
 
 - This is a time for America to be firm and resolute – and to make clear beyond any doubt that America will not tolerate attacks on our own. 
 
 - The violence against the American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt underscores that the world remains a dangerous place and that American leadership is sorely needed. 
 
 - Over the last several years, we have stood witness to an Arab Spring that presents both opportunity for a more peaceful and prosperous region, but also great peril if the forces of extremism and violence are allowed to control the course of events. 
 
 We must strive to ensure that the Arab Spring is not followed by an Arab Winter. 
 
 - American leadership is necessary to ensure that events in the region do not spin out of control. 
 
 - We have seen a foreign policy of weakness and decline in American influence and respect. Yesterday, we saw the consequences of this perceived weakness. 
 
 - America cannot send mixed signals to either our allies or our enemies. 
 
 - We must not be afraid to use our influence to support those who share our values and interests – and to stand firm against those who threaten them. America cannot shrink from its responsibility to lead. 
 
 Questions & Answers: 
 
 Don’t you think it was appropriate for the embassy to condemn the controversial movie in question? Are you standing up for movies like this? 
 
 - Governor Romney rejects the reported message of the movie. There is no room for religious hatred or intolerance. 
 
 - But we will not apologize for our constitutional right to freedom of speech. 
 
 - Storming U.S. missions and committing acts of violence is never acceptable, no matter the reason. Any response that does not immediately and decisively make that clear conveys weakness. 
 
 - If pressed: Governor Romney repudiated this individual in 2010 when he attempted to mobilize a Quran-burning movement. He is firmly against any expression of religious hatred or intolerance. 
 
 Reports indicate the embassy in Cairo released its initial statement before the invasion of the embassy commenced. Doesn’t this show they were trying to tamp down the protest and prevent what ultimately happened, not sympathize with the protesters? 
 
 - The Administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt instead of condemning their actions. 
 
 - Distancing themselves from the statement and saying it wasn't ‘cleared by Washington’ reflects the mixed signals they are sending to the world. 
 
 - American leadership needs to be decisive and resolute when our interests are threatened or attacked. For the last four years, this has been lacking. 
 
 - We have seen a foreign policy of weakness, indecision, and a decline in American influence and respect – and yesterday we saw the consequences. 
 
 - If pressed: The Obama campaign is now attacking Governor Romney for being critical of the same statement the Administration itself disavowed. This is hypocritical. 
 
 Did Governor Romney “jump the gun” last night in releasing his statement? 
 
 - No. It is never too soon to stand up for American values and interests. 
 
 Full Romney Statement: 
 
 “Americans woke up this morning with tragic news and felt heavy hearts as they considered that individuals who have served in our diplomatic corps were brutally murdered across the world. This attack on American individuals and embassies is outrageous, it's disgusting. It breaks the hearts of all of us who think of these people who have served, during their lives, the cause of freedom, and justice and honor. We mourn their loss and join together in prayer that the spirit of the Almighty might comfort the families of those who have been so brutally slain. 
 
 “Four diplomats lost their life, including the U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, in the attack on our embassy at Benghazi, Libya. And, of course, with these words, I extend my condolences to the grieving loved ones, who have left behind, as a result of these who have lost their lives in the service of our nation, and I know that the people across America are grateful for their service and we mourn their sacrifice. 
 
 “America will not tolerate attacks against our citizens and against our embassies. We will defend also our constitutional rights of speech and assembly and religion. We have confidence in our cause in America. We respect our Constitution. We stand for the principles our Constitution protects. We encourage other nations to understand and respect the principles of our Constitution because we recognize that these principles are the ultimate source of freedom for individuals around the world. 
 
 “I also believe the Administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt instead of condemning their actions. It's never too early for the United States Government to condemn attacks on Americans, and to defend our values. The White House distanced itself last night from the statement, saying it wasn't ‘cleared by Washington.’ That reflects the mixed signals they’re sending to the world. 
 
 “The attacks in Libya and Egypt underscore that the world remains a dangerous place and that American leadership is still sorely needed. In the face of this violence, America cannot shrink from the responsibility to lead. American leadership is necessary to ensure that events in the region don’t spin out of control. We cannot hesitate to use our influence in the region to support those who share our values and our interests. Over the last several years, we have stood witness to an Arab Spring that presents an opportunity for a more peaceful and prosperous region, but also poses the potential for peril, if the forces of extremism and violence are allowed to control the course of events. 
 
 “We must strive to ensure that the Arab Spring does not become an Arab Winter.” ||||| Advisers to Mitt Romney are split over how broadly and aggressively to attack President Barack Obama for his handling of foreign policy following the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, according to top Republicans close to the campaign. 
 
 Some aides are arguing that the campaign has been given a huge gift: a new opening to argue White House failure and incompetence. “Across the board – domestic, economic and foreign-policy issues – President Obama has been outmatched by events,” said a Romney adviser advocating an aggressive response to the chaos in the Middle East. “He’s an observer of events, not a shaper of events. Everywhere you look, he’s been outmatched.” 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset 
 
 And indeed, POLITICO has learned that Romney now plans a major speech on foreign policy at some point after Wednesday’s debate, probably next week. The speech will focus on “a failed foreign policy and how we arrived at this moment, where people are storming our embassies, [and] the Iranians are storming ahead with their nuclear program,” said a senior Republican close to the campaign. 
 
 (PHOTOS: 10 slams on Obama and Benghazi) 
 
 “You can start to go around the world and look at all the crises, and our deteriorating relations with certain countries,” the Republican added. 
 
 But the campaign is sticking with its day-to-day message on the economy — a view promoted internally by Stuart Stevens, the chief strategist, who is among those arguing that issue is what voters will use to judge whether Obama deserves a second term. “As messy as the world looks, it’s not voters’ primary concern,” a top aide said. “And if we’re not talking about their primary concern, we’re not winning.” 
 
 The truth is Romney now finds himself besieged with conflicting advice, internally and externally: Attack Obama harder. Offer a detailed agenda. Pivot to foreign policy. Pivot back to the economy. 
 
 Romney’s response: Ignore it and stick to the game plan, which does not include any serious, sustained detour into foreign policy. His internal polls show the same thing as Obama’s: Voters just don’t care much about foreign policy in this election. This is the reason Obama was so quick to drop his attack on Romney for not mentioning the troops or Afghanistan in his convention speech. Voters didn’t seem to care. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Reid defends Rice, W.H. on Libya) 
 
 This is basically the Stuart Stevens doctrine. And regardless of the passionate arguments of some other aides, including several outside foreign-policy advisers, the boss is going with Stevens on this until further notice. 
 
 That doesn’t mean they won’t talk foreign policy at all. Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan previewed the campaign’s argument on “Fox News Sunday,” telling Chris Wallace: “We’re seeing the ugly fruits of the Obama foreign policy unravel around the world on our TV screens. Syria — you’ve got 20,000 dead people. Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon. The Middle East peace process is in shambles, and we have our flags being burned all around the world. Russia is thwarting us at every stage in the process. This is a weak foreign policy with terrible results, which makes us less safe.” 
 
 For now, Romney and Ryan plan to avoid discussing the Libya attack as an isolated issue, but instead plan to use the issue “to kick-start a broader conversation about the failure of Obama’s foreign policy, around the region and in many parts of the world,” a Romney aide said. 
 
 Romney and Ryan will answer questions about Libya when asked in interviews, but plan to say very little for now about the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in what the administration is now calling a “terrorist” attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. ||||| Republican challenger Mitt Romney sought to portray President Barack Obama as weak on foreign policy Wednesday after violent attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in the Middle East. Obama steered clear of the political fight, declaring as commander in chief that "justice will be done" in response to the deaths of four Americans in Libya. 
 
 Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney makes comments on the killing of U.S. embassy officials in Benghazi, Libya, while speaking in Jacksonville, Fla., Wednesday, Sept.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Romney used the attacks as an opening to assail Obama during an appearance in swing state Florida, accusing the administration of sending "mixed signals to the world" and failing to lead in the face of violence. 
 
 Obama avoided engaging his political rival during an appearance in the White House Rose Garden with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Addressing the nation and the world, he said there was "absolutely no justification for this kind of senseless violence _ none." He was responding to the Tuesday night attack that killed U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three American members of his staff. 
 
 Romney had jumped to criticize Obama as the attacks were being waged on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya. Angry mobs attacked the facilities to protest an obscure film by a California filmmaker that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad. 
 
 The U.S. Embassy in Cairo initially issued a statement that criticized the film. Romney, trailing Obama in public opinion polls on their leadership on foreign policy, quickly pounced with a statement before news of the diplomats' deaths, saying the administration's response seemed to "sympathize with those who waged the attacks." 
 
 As news of the deaths came from the White House Wednesday morning, the Romney team scrambled to change a speech before supporters in his Jacksonville, Fla., campaign headquarters to a more somber event. The supporters were ushered from the room and four flags were set up behind the podium from which Romney read a brief statement mentioning Egypt and contending that Obama is a weak leader. He then invited questions from reporters, who asked if it was an appropriate tone to take given the deaths and that the White House said it disagreed with the embassy statement. Romney stood firm. 
 
 "The president takes responsibility not just for the words that come from his mouth, but also for the words that come from his ambassadors , from his administration, from his embassies, from his State Department," Romney said. "They clearly sent mixed messages to the world. The statement that came from the administration _ and the embassy is the administration _ the statement that came from the administration was a statement which is akin to apology. And I think was a severe miscalculation." 
 
 Obama did not mention Romney and instead focused on the diplomats who were lost. He ignored reporters' shouted questions asking him to respond to Romney, keeping himself out of the fray and leaving the job to other Democrats. 
 
 "Gov. Romney's comments are about as inappropriate as anything I have ever seen at this kind of a moment," Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry told reporters. "They are flat wrong but they demonstrate an insensitivity and a lack of judgment about what is happening right now. To make those kinds of statements before you even know the facts, before families have even been notified before things have played out is really not just inexperienced, it's irresponsible, it's callous, it's reckless. And I think he ought to apologize and I don't think he knows what he's talking about frankly. 
 
 The Mideast attacks pivoted the election to foreign policy, an area where the president who commanded the mission that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has a lead in polling even though Republicans traditionally have an edge. 
 
 "The attacks in Libya and Egypt underscore that the world remains a dangerous place and that American leadership is still sorely needed," Romney said Wednesday. "In the face of this violence, American cannot shrink from the responsibility to lead. American leadership is necessary to ensure that events in the region don't spin out of control. We cannot hesitate to use our influence in the region to support those who share our values and our interests. 
 
 "As I've watched over the past three and a half years, the president has had some successes. He's had some failures," Romney said. "It's a hit-or-miss approach, but it has not been based upon sound foreign policy." 
 
 Obama was more cautious in responding to the attacks as the situation evolved. The White House says Obama was informed of the Libya attacks Tuesday afternoon during his weekly meeting with Pentagon leaders and told later in the evening that Stevens was unaccounted for. Obama learned of the ambassador's death Wednesday morning, the White House said. 
 
 On Capitol Hill, where flags were lowered to half-staff, Republicans mostly steered clear of the political criticism that Romney leveled at Obama over foreign policy, focusing on the lives lost in the Egyptian and Libyan attacks and imploring the two governments to condemn the incidents and protect American diplomatic missions. 
 
 Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Americans "will stand united in our response." 
 
 "Among the things we can all agree on in Washington is that attacks on the U.S. and its representatives will be met with resolve, and that America's presence and defense of our national interests across the globe will not be deterred by the acts of violent extremists," he said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Pickler reported from Washington. ||||| Debate moderator Candy Crowley defended her decision to interject in a heated moment about Libya during last night's presidential debate, saying she was not trying to "fact check," but just trying to move the debate along. 
 
 "It didn't come to me as I'm going to fact check that. It came to me as let's get past this... To me I was really trying to move the conversation along... This is a semantic thing," Crowley told the hosts of "The View." 
 
 Her comments angered some debate watchers, particularly Mitt Romney supporters. 
 
 The CNN correspondent spoke up during a heated exchange between President Obama and Romney over whether the president cited terrorism as the cause of the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans. 
 
 With Romney insisting that Obama did not blame it on a terror attack for another two weeks, Crowley piped up to say he had cited a terror attack the day after the Americans were killed. 
 
 "He did call it an act of terror," Crowley said of the president's remarks, but then told Romney, "you are correct" that it took the White House two weeks to fully admit that the attack was the result of planned terrorist operation and not part of protest against an anti-Islam video. 
 
 Crowley said on "The View" she was not coming down on the side of the president and those accusing her of bias should "listen to the thing I said right after, which is you're point Mr. Romney, you're absolutely correct. It took them weeks to get past the tape, the riot." 
 
 Obama seized on Crowley's comments during the debate, asking "Can you say that a little louder, Candy?" and fueling conservative accusations of bias. 
 
 Obama went into the White House Rose Garden the day after the Americans died and told reporters, "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done." 
 
 Crowley told "TheView" that "People are going to look at this through the prism they look at this through. I get that." 
 
 She said having the two candidates argue back and forth gave her flashbacks of her children fighting, but she did not believe the two men personally dislike one another. 
 
 "I got the vibe they have so much at stake here," she said of the second debate held last night at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. 
 
 Days before the debate, Crowley on several occasions said she planned to follow up on questions posed to candidates by an audience of undecided voters. ||||| Now he takes a beating on Libya. 
 
 All things foreign seem foreign to Mitt Romney. 
 
 He says he'll save the American economy while banking in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. He says he'll create American jobs as his company Bain Capital outsources jobs to China. He insults the Brits during the Olympics. He denigrates the Palestinian people as culturally inferior on a trip to Israel. He fails to even mention 190,000 American troops serving in Afghanistan at his convention speech. He still calls Russia "the Soviet Union" and labels it as America's No. 1 enemy. 
 
 If John Kerry was right when he said at the Democratic Convention the "last time Romney saw Russia was in 'Rocky 4,'" then the only thing he knows about Libya comes from watching Sasha Baron Cohen's "The Dictator." 
 
 Now it's Romney's Libya gaffe on the anniversary of 9/11. 
 
 On Sept. 11, as the nation mourned the heroes and victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as non-partisan Americans, with all name-calling between the Obama and Romney camps on hiatus for one mournful day, U.S. Ambassador to Libya John Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed by religious fanatics who stormed the American consulate in Benghazi with grenade launchers and machine guns. 
 
 These savages were incited to murder because some fanatical Islamic cleric cited some obscure film made by an even more anonymous American filmmaker that had about as much chance of being released as the last 10 years of Romney's tax returns. 
 
 Several hours before the murders, as anti-American protests swelled, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo condemned "the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions." 
 
 A lame statement to be sure. 
 
 But the White House quickly said they never approved that statement, claiming, "It doesn't reflect the views of the U.S. government." 
 
 Then all hell broke loose and four Americans were murdered in Benghazi. 
 
 But by 10 p.m. Boston time, before the last beacon of light dimmed at Ground Zero, before Taps had finished echoing through Lower Manhattan, before the last grieving family member had gone to bed on a politics- and politician-free 9/11 commemoration, Romney headquarters issued an embargoed statement to the media on the barbaric attacks. 
 
 The campaign okayed its release at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 12. 
 
 "I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi," Romney said. "It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks." 
 
 Awful. 
 
 Political, exploitative, opportunistic. 
 
 As Rudy Giuliani learned when he ran for President the American people do not like politicians trying to exploit political mileage from the blood of our dead. 
 
 In boxing, a reckless roundhouse punch like Romney's is the mark of a desperate "amacha" reeling on the ropes after Obama scored a five-point post-convention bump in the polls. 
 
 Romney's Libyan punch missed by a mile and as we bury more innocent Americans killed on Sept. 11, it leaves Romney open for the kind of counterpunch from which even the best fighters often don't recover. 
 
 Hear Romney's defend his statement in this press conference 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter and Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden sparred on Sunday over the President Barack Obama's charge that the Republican presidential challenger suffered from “Romnesia” 
 
 “The very fact that the president of the United States has to utter a term like that just is a glaring example of how small the campaign has been,” Madden told CBS's ‘Face the Nation’ host Bob Schieffer. “The Obama campaign has not been one about the future…Instead, they’ve reduced themselves to very small attacks like ‘Romnesia’…along with this talk about binders, this talk about Big Bird, I mean all of it is really indicative of a candidate who doesn’t have a vision for the future.” 
 
 The president Obama said last week that Mitt Romney was suffering from “Romnesia,” and painted him as a flip-flopper who could not remember conservative policy positions he’s taken in the past. 
 
 Cutter defended the campaign’s use of "binders of women' and Big Bird, because that was the language Romney used himself. 
 
 “We are not the ones that brought up Big Bird. Big Bird is important because that’s the only thing Mitt Romney could point to as to how he’s going to reduce the deficit,” she said. “Deficits are a big issues in this campaign and that’s the only thing you can point to…The president has a detailed plan on the table as to how to reduce these deficits.” 
 
 “Romnesia is a playful term of what Mitt Romney is doing in the final days of this race,” Cutter added. “He’s run as the ideal tea party candidate, severely conservative…and in the last two weeks of the campaign he’s running to the middle.” 
 
 Madden accused the Obama campaign of being petty. 
 
 "I don't think the message to voters right now ought to be playing Scrabble with your opponent's name when you have 23 million people struggling to find work," he said. 
 
 Read more about: Face The Nation, Stephanie Cutter, Kevin Madden, Big Bird
– Team Romney came out of the gate swinging at President Obama's "Romnesia" jab, his handling of Libya, and the whole "binders full of women" flap, with surrogate Marco Rubio blasting away at all three. Addressing Romnesia, Rubio said, "that fires up his base," but for Americans "trying to make up their minds who to vote for, what they're wondering is, 'Well, that’s very cute, Mr. President,' but what are you going to do for the future?" He dismissed the binders outrage as "silly outrage, it's not even real outrage." Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden piled on, saying, "I don't think the message to voters right now ought to be playing Scrabble with your opponent's name" and that the Obama campaign, for lack of vision, has reduced itself "to very small attacks like ‘Romnesia’, along with this talk about binders, this talk about Big Bird." Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter defended talk of Big Bird as important "because that’s the only thing Mitt Romney could point to as to how he’s going to reduce the deficit." A look around your Sunday dial, as per Politico: David Axelrod on NBC's latest poll: "You guys also issued polls in the last week that showed us with an 8-point lead in Iowa, I think we had a lead in Ohio, you’ve showed us having a lead in Florida. I don’t know how to square all the polling that NBC is releasing." Lindsay Graham on Iran talks: "As we talk with the Iranians, whether it’s bilaterally or unilaterally, they continue to enrich, and the vice president and the president have said we will do nothing without coordinating with Israel. I think it’s pretty obvious they are trying to continue a dialogue using our election cycle in a pretty clever way." Gallup editor Frank Newport on his methodology: “People come at you from either side if they don't like the results. Our methodology is extremely solid. We’re very open about how we do it." Graham on Libya: "The Benghazi consulate was becoming a death trap. The British left, the Red Cross left. We should have closed that consulate long before Sept. 11, and I put that on the president of the United States.” Dick Durbin on GOP and Libya: "Darrell Issa does a document dump with sensitive information about those in Libya who are helping keep America safe. It shows the lengths many will go to politicize this tragic situation." Newt Gingrich on Libya: “Should Ronald Reagan not have talked about (the Iran hostage crisis) for 444 days? The fact is, we're in the middle of a mess in the Middle East, the mess keeps evolving, there continue to be incidents. If that offends the president, then that’s his problem and he ought to get over it."