Page 13 - On Libya News Today

Has the facts on his side, the problem is he tried to litigate it on the one word or words of the rose garden and we really didnt get a sinus of the time line and just how long it took for the administration to call the civic attack in libya an act of terrorism . on that point. i thought he should have stuck to the overall picture of what happened in benghazi rather than tryying to lit great out. i thought he went down the wrong path. >> gretchen: the final debate is all about foreign policy. it...

What happened in libya and its interesting, the president of the united states did fine will he take responsibility for what happened there as commander in chief, but then extraordinarily, and this was new -- he said, and the day after it happened, i went out into the rose garden and i called it an act of terror. when, in fact, he didnt do that. he called it no acts of terror. so he got it wrong. but unfortunately, candy crowley essentially acting not as the moderator, but instead as the ump, th...

Semantics but the fact is, governor romney blew the moment. >> i dont think so at all. and i dont think its a matter of semantics. >> at the moment and he missed the larger point. >> i dont think so. i think the point here to the american people, number one, is this is a tragedy. and everyone agrees with that. and i would say the other thing is, when bad things happen, it doesnt mean that the president, because of that bad event, is a bad leader. thats not the point. the point is that this presi...

Popped up. they clearly believe this is a weak point for the president. >> look, what i think the president talked about is a balanced plan. as he talked about last night, were going to have to make some tough spending cuts. were going to need to ask mitt romney and others, including barack obama, to pay their fair share, to pay a little bit more. certainly the president talked about taxpayers and do this in a way to allow us to invest in important things, like education and things that we know ...

On that note because the moderator felt the pressure to cut short some exchanges that might have been interesting if they went on because she felt the need to get more questions in. but it meant that the time clock was almost a supporting player. it was visible behind both men as they spoke and led to frequent attempts to override the moderator. >> i will let you, absolutely -- >> let me answer and -- >> you certainly will have lot of time here coming up. were going to move you along to taxes. >...

>> the conversations were dominated by libya. ryan tried to explain romneys libya mistake. >> it was a passing comment in general. it was not a claim that this was a result of the terrorist attack. >> i dont think they should have sent their u.n. ambassador out saying that this was by a spontaneous mob. i dont think he should have mentioned it six times. >> the problem for romney is, it matters less than how he answered it in front of 65 million people. the white house has questions to answer on...

Im the president. and im always responsible. and thats why nobody is more interested in finding out exactly what happened than i do. >> all right. this happened september 11th. i was checking my math and my dates. its now october 17th. last night, october 16th. why did it take more than a month for the president to say, you know what, the buck stops here? a lot of people were saying, where was that response from the president on libya, on the security lapses? >> chuck, as you heard from the pres...

My gosh, a lot of things erupting across the middle east and the world that are going to turn an eye back to foreign policy, whether americans are tired of 12 years of war or not. >> yeah, we talked about this front-page piece in "the times" this morning on syria. also libya. a lot of questions surrounding that. republicans hammering at this, hoping the american people will take notice of the obama administrations handling of the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in libya that killed four amer...

Region. >> mark halperin. >> youve got to wonder what the reason is for republicans who know the election is going to be primarily about the economy, why they continue to talk about libya, syria, why about governor romney give that foreign policy speech? my sense is their view of the race is particularly with the economy doing a little bit better, that they need to show that governor romney is stronger. you go back to castellanos very smart view of debates, you need moments of strength. and reme...

A political season, so obviously there are lots of political positioning going on from both sides here. but if you step back for where voters really look at this, and i agree with joe, i dont think this is going to play a dimes worth of difference in terms of the election outcome. but where voters look at it, senator graham who knows a lot about national security goes out and says, this administrations narrative on al qaedas leadership is wrong. well, most voters will say, osama bin ladens gone....