The violent attacks on the U.S. consulate in Libya and embassy in Egypt
quickly became the focus of the U.S. presidential election campaign
Wednesday. Republican candidate Mitt Romney criticized the Obama
administration’s handling of the attack on the embassy in Cairo, but
those comments quickly sparked a retort from Democrats.
The presidential campaign took a sharp turn into foreign policy in the
wake of the attacks in Libya and Egypt.
Speaking in Florida, Republican candidate Mitt Romney told reporters
that the attacks were “outrageous” and “disgusting” and said Americans
joined together to mourn the loss of four Americans in Libya including
Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
But Romney then zeroed in on an early statement from the U.S. embassy in
Cairo that criticized the obscure video allegedly made in the United
States that triggered the violence.
The embassy statement condemned efforts by what it called “misguided
individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims,” and was issued
before the announcement of the deaths of U.S. diplomats in Libya.
Romney called the embassy statement disgraceful.
“When our (embassy) grounds are being attacked and being breached that
the first response of the United States must be outrage at the breach of
the sovereignty of our nation and apology for America’s values is never
the right course,” Romney said.
Romney was then pressed by reporters as to whether it was wise for him
to comment on a foreign policy crisis as it was unfolding.
“I don’t think we ever hesitate when we see something which is a
violation of our principles. We express immediately when we feel that
the president and his administration have done something which is
inconsistent with the principles of America,” Romney said.
A short time later, President Barack Obama appeared at the White House
with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to express sorrow for the deaths
of the U.S. diplomats and to condemn the violence.
“The United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject
all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is
absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None,”
Obama said.
Obama did not respond to Romney’s comments in his remarks. But earlier
the Obama campaign criticized the Romney campaign for choosing to launch
what it called a “political attack” in the midst of an unfolding
situation overseas.
Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Romney attack was
“irresponsible,” “callous” and “reckless.”
But Romney did get some support from fellow Republicans including
California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
“The response suggested an understanding of Muslim rage toward a
negative portrayal of their religion. There is no understanding of that
type of violence,” Rohrabacher said.
Many political analysts were surprised that Romney would weigh in so
strongly in the midst of an unfolding international situation.
Analyst Rhodes Cook is the author of a Washington political newsletter.
“You
know the economy is Obama’s ‘Achilles Heel,’ not foreign policy. So to
go there and go so forcefully at a time when several American diplomats
have been killed and to make it kind of a political debate over the
administration’s foreign policy is, you know, open to question,” Cook
said.
The Romney comments also provoked a strong reaction from some foreign
policy experts.
Lawrence Korb is a former Defense Department official who is now with
the Center for American Progress, a Democratic-leaning policy research
group in Washington.
“Well, I should say that I’m appalled, but not surprised because I think
the Romney campaign is desperate to try and close the gap on foreign
policy, which had been a traditional Republican strength in the
elections but it is not this time,” Korb said.
Public opinion polls have given President Obama an advantage over Romney
in handling foreign policy, especially in the wake of last year’s U.S.
commando raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Foreign policy will be the subject of the third and final presidential
debate to be held October 22.
