The hours after the ambassador to Libya was killed this week should have been of reflection and sadness; for Mitt Romney's campaign the incident appeared to many to be political low-hanging fruit. As Americans were aghast at the violence, and anti-American protests spread across at least three countries, the Republican presidential hopeful used his first statements on the incident to attack President Barack Obama, and Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post is not impressed.
I mean, Mitt Romney. Really. U.S. diplomatic posts are attacked abroad, and your first reaction is to issue a statement blasting the president? J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other officials are killed in a commando-style assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, and your instinct is to seek not safety for other Americans at risk, not justice for the cold-blooded killers, but political advantage for yourself? Romney's rushed statement Tuesday night calling the Obama administration's response to the violence “disgraceful” was a new low in a campaign already scraping bottom. And Romney's subsequent decision to double down on the attack, even as Americans mourned the first killing of an ambassador since 1979 and officials began investigating what now looks like a well-planned terrorist attack …
… Well, I guess this whole performance says a lot about what kind of man Romney is.
The most charitable explanation is that he's in a panic over polls that show Obama opening a lead. If this is not the case, then Romney's ignorance of foreign policy is more profound — and potentially dangerous — than anyone could have suspected.
Read Eugene Robinson's entire piece at the Washington Post.
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