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aside our nuclear ambitions and save our economy. and that's what the president's been working on. that's a project he's been working on for all of these years. remember when he came into office, we were isolated in our position on iran. and in the world. and today the world is unified against iran with us. all because of the leadership of this president. >> let me ask you about libya. this certainly will come up again in the response to the killing of our ambassador, chris stephe stephenss. >> the issue has been there's been inconsisty from the administration as to how they described it. the president did call it an act of terror the day before but also made reference to the potential that this was a response to a video that was getting -- an anti-islam video that was causing disruptions in egypt as well. this is how paul ryan is describing the situation. he did it in a radio interview on friday.
committed this act of terror to justice. and that's what he's going to do. there's only one candidate here who has tried to exploit it from the beginning, even while the flames were burning in benghazi. mitt romney was sending out political press releases on this. and the whole republican party has followed. and on friday, chairman issa in the house on the republican side released a reef of documents that he asked for that included the names of people on the ground in libya who are cooperating with us and helping us on these security issues, jeopardizing their lives, carelessly, recklessly putting them at risk, all to score political points in the final weeks before an election. that's disgraceful. the way they have handled this issue is disgraceful. to hear paul ryan make the case, who is budget committee chair, wanting to cut back on our request for security funding for these embassies and consulates, makes it even worse. >> but this wouldn't be an
helene, if i'm watching all of this, and maybe i'm an undecided voter, if i'm out there, what is the bigger point about all of this that i should be giving some serious attention to, if at all? >> i think that's a really good question. i wonder whether a lot of these undecided voters are actually -- if they do exist, are actually thinking that. i think as an american, you have to look at this. the question of embassy security is one that is definitely, you know, should be looked at. the administration has to study that. but the larger issue is the issue of the arab spring and what's happening in this key area, key region for american foreign policy. and that's where you're seeing in libya, egypt,g jemaah islamiyahge yemen and all over the place you have all of this democracy and the mess that comes with it. and i think americans need to be -- i think tom's point is excellent about the sponse of the libyan people. in the egypt case, you didn't
you can have a flash mob turned into a plan thing. you can have plan people inside of a flash mob. to me, this is utterly contrived story in the sense that this is the end of, you know, obama's foreign policy. i think we are missing two things. one is the global picture. what's going on in the arab world since the arab spring? we've seen the breakdown of the intelligence service state. all of these states have collared all of these islamists and jihadists for us, in many cases. those states have broken down, but a new order hasn't arisen. and that's what you saw in benghazi. but here's what's also new, and we have completely missed this story, and it's a great thing for america. let's forget which candidate it might serve. what happened immediately a day and a half after this incident in libya, thousands of libyans, carrying pictures of our ambassador, voluntarily marched on the militia headquarters that did this and took these guys down. that is one of the greatest
you can have a flash mob turned into a plan thing. you can have plan people inside of a flash mob. to me, this is utterly contrived story in the sense that this is the end of, you know, obama's foreign policy. i think we are missing two things. one is the global picture. what's going on in the arab world since the arab spring? we've seen the breakdown of the intelligence service state. all of these states have collared all of these islamists and jihadists for us, in many cases. those states have broken down, but a new order hasn't arisen. and that's what you saw in benghazi. but here's what's also new, and we have completely missed this story, and it's a great thing for america. let's forget which candidate it might serve. what happened immediately a day and a half after this incident in libya, thousands of libyans, carrying pictures of our ambassador, voluntarily marched on the militia headquarters that did this and took these guys down. that is one of the greatest
successes for the united states possible. we didn't have to do it. they did it, on their own. and the fact that we're not talking about that but talking about how many times you used the word terrorism and did you scratch your ear like this is nonsense. >> but what seems to be an important policy question, dee dee myers, we do know that this administration has asserted it has done grave damage to al qaeda. the ultimate of course is killing osama bin laden. but here you have chaotic situations, including in libya, where there were questions about whether there was adequate security for diplomatic institution outposts like this. also the issue of what's happened since. the fact that the fbi couldn't get in there, even to investigate, because of security. and this from steven hayes of the weekly standard, which i think we should talk about. he writes in the magazine, the man suspected of organizing the attack on the u.s. consulate spent two leisurely hours sipping a strawberry frap on a patio and boasted he wasn't even
mislead when we have lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. that's not what we do. that's not what i do as president. that's not what i do as commander in chief. >> that was an exchange from tuesday's debate. it will get hot and heavy again tomorrow in the final debate. we are back at our roundtable. joining me now, "the new york times'" helene cooper. "new york times" columnist and co-author of that "that used to be us" tom friedman. republican strategist and columnist for "time" magazine mike murphy. and former white house secretary for president clinton dee dee myers. welcome to all of you. let's talk libya, tom friedman. what are we to make of this? could this be politicized any further? >> it's totally politicized at this point. other than a civil war in beirut for 40 years, these are incredibly messy situations. people don't show up in uniforms.
helene, if i'm watching all of this, and maybe i'm an undecided voter, if i'm out there, what is the bigger point about all of this that i should be giving some serious attention to, if at all? >> i think that's a really good question. i wonder whether a lot of these undecided voters are actually -- if they do exist, are actually thinking that. i think as an american, you have to look at this. the question of embassy security is one that is definitely, you know, should be looked at. the administration has to study that. but the larger issue is the issue of the arab spring and what's happening in this key area, key region for american foreign policy. and that's where you're seeing in libya, egypt,g jemaah islamiyahge yemen and all over the place you have all of this democracy and the mess that comes with it. and i think americans need to be -- i think tom's point is excellent about the sponse of the libyan people. in the egypt case, you didn't
aside our nuclear ambitions and save our economy. and that's what the president's been working on. that's a project he's been working on for all of these years. remember when he came into office, we were isolated in our position on iran. and in the world. and today the world is unified against iran with us. all because of the leadership of this president. >> let me ask you about libya. this certainly will come up again in the response to the killing of our ambassador, chris stephe stephenss. >> the issue has been there's been inconsisty from the administration as to how they described it. the president did call it an act of terror the day before but also made reference to the potential that this was a response to a video that was getting -- an anti-islam video that was causing disruptions in egypt as well. this is how paul ryan is describing the situation. he did it in a radio interview on friday.
be an important debate. i don't think any one event is decisive. but this is an important issue. even though being strong at home and rebuilding our economy is the number one issue, people want to know they have a strong, steady hand in the oval office, and they don't want someone who's reckless and has been consistently wrong on foreign policy issues as governor romney has. we all remember his dukes of hazard tour of international destinations over the summer where he not only roiled countries that are not friendly to us but our best ally, britain. he was wrong on libya. he was wrong on iraq. so people are going to have a chance to take a measure of these two guys and say, who do i want as the commander in chief? who do i want leading the war on terror? and i think we're going to -- i think that's a very stark contrast. >> finally, state of the race now as you handicap the final weeks. you heard chuck todd with our new numbers. 47%, 47%. he said 47% for the president is not a good number for an