PUEBLO, Colo. — Mitt Romney escalated his attacks on President Barack Obama’s foreign policy Monday, saying the administration is “at the mercy” of events in the Middle East.
Speaking to voters in Pueblo, the Republican presidential candidate said Obama has mismanaged political developments in the region, including the death of the American ambassador in Libya.
“These are not bumps in the road; these are human lives,” he said, keying on a phrase the president used in an interview broadcast Sunday. “This is time for a president who will shape events in the Middle East.”
U.S. officials are investigating the deaths in Libya,which occurred when the consulate was breached.
In a Monday afternoon taping of the daytime talk show The View, the president avoided a direct answer when asked if the Libya attack had been terrorism.
“There’s no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn’t just a mob action. What’s clear is that,around the world, there are still a lot of threats out there,” he said.
Romney’s new attack comes as his campaign struggles to stem criticism from other Republicans about recent political setbacks - most prominently the release of a secretly recorded video in which he disparaged almost half of U.S. voters.
Senior Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said Monday that the campaign intends to draw sharper contrasts between the Republican’s policies and those of Obama, and move more quickly to respond to the news of the day.
Romney was reacting to comments made by Obama in an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, where the president said it was clear there would be “bumps in the road” for Arab countries shifting to democracy.
“I was pretty certain, and continue to be pretty certain, that there are going to be bumps in the road because, in a lot of these places the one organizing principle has been Islam,” Obama said.
“There are strains of extremism and anti-Americanism and anti-Western sentiments” that “can be tapped into by demagogues,” the president said, adding that “I do think that over the long term we are more likely to get a Middle East and North Africa that is more peaceful, more prosperous and more aligned with our interests.”
“Um, bumps in the road ?”Romney told more than 1,500 people at the outdoor rally in Pueblo. “We had an ambassador assassinated, we had a Muslim Brotherhood member elected to the presidency of Egypt, 20,000 people have been killed in Syria, we have tumult in Pakistan, and, of course, Iran is that much closer to having the capacity to build a nuclear weapon.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued challenges to Democratic candidates in several races to“share their view” on Obama’s remarks.
Democrats said Romney’s attack on Obama is “reckless” and took the president’s remarks out of context.
“There is a certain rather desperate attempt to grasp at words and phrases here to find political advantage, and in this case that’s profoundly offensive,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
Obama traveled to New York to attend a reception Monday night for world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. In a speech he will give to the gathering today, Obama plans to stress his commitment to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. He will also condemn a recent video that sparked protests across the Arab world as well as the violence that happened after, according to Carney.
His two-day trip to New York has drawn criticism from Republicans. Obama, who today will also address the Clinton Global Initiative, hasn’t announced plans for private meetings with world leaders.
Romney, too, travels to New York to deliver a speech today before former President Bill Clinton’s global initiative group, in which he will advocate more open trade policies and freer markets abroad.
After complaints from fellow Republicans that Romney was spending too much time fundraising, the candidate is planning to embark upon a bus tour in Ohio with running-mate Paul Ryan and hold events in Virginia later in the week.
“I’m going to make sure that people understand that this is a different direction for the nation,” Romney said Monday, in an interview with ABC News. “If they want the status quo, they can re-elect the person who has been leading us over the last four years.”
Like Romney, Ryan on Monday assailed Obama’s management of political developments in the Middle East, drawing a comparison with the 1979 taking of American hostages in Iran during Democrat Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
At a campaign stop in Lima, Ohio, the congressman from Wisconsin criticized Obama for cuts to military projects such as the Army’s Abrams battle tank, which is built in that city. The Army is planning to temporarily suspend the production of the most advanced version of that tank to save money. Also, the Pentagon faces about $500 billion in automatic cuts over a decade if the White House and Congress don’t agree on ways to reduce the deficit by the beginning of 2013.
Ryan said gutting the military will embolden enemies abroad. But Ryan didn’t tell his audience that he voted for the defense cuts he’s now criticizing on the campaign trail.
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, told supporters that the tank plant would be shut down “over a budget gimmick.” Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Lerer and Roxana Tiron of Bloomberg News; and by David Espo, Kasie Hunt, Ben Feller, Jim Kuhnhenn, John Seewer and Philip Elliott of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/25/2012