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Team Romney’s Appalling Assertion

Get this: Advisers to Mitt Romney on Thursday defended his sharp criticism of President Obama and said that the deadly protests sweeping the Middle East would not have happened if the Republican nominee were president. “There’s a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you’d be in a different situation,” Richard Williamson, […]

Get this:

Advisers to Mitt Romney on Thursday defended his sharp criticism of President Obama and said that the deadly protests sweeping the Middle East would not have happened if the Republican nominee were president.

“There’s a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you’d be in a different situation,” Richard Williamson, a top Romney foreign policy adviser, said in an interview. “For the first time since Jimmy Carter, we’ve had an American ambassador assassinated.”

Williamson added, “In Egypt and Libya and Yemen, again demonstrations — the respect for America has gone down, there’s not a sense of American resolve and we can’t even protect sovereign American property.”

This is idiotic and malicious. These barbarians massing outside our embassies would be doing exactly the same thing if Romney were president. And the strong implication here that Obama’s negligence got the ambassador to Libya killed is just foul, an appalling attempt to exploit the murder of Amb. Stevens for political gain. What is wrong with these people? I’ve thought the Romney-bashing on the protest issue was a bit excessive, but I take it all back. I was wrong, and Noah was right.

UPDATE:  Drudge is blasting a British media report citing unnamed “senior diplomatic sources” claiming that the US received warnings that its diplomatic facilities in the region were under threat, but did nothing. If this proves true, Obama and his State Department will rightly face criticism. But Romney’s adviser seems to be trashing Obama not for failing to take precautions based on reliable intelligence, but for not being a badass.

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