Quote Originally Posted by Enoch the Red View Post
I'm not looking to defend Romney, but I think it's ridiculous to say that Romney didn't have the facts. Romney had every fact he needed at his disposal to make his initial criticism.

Originally he was referencing Egypt, where our consulate there made several press releases and public statements, (including tweets and updates on their websites) seemingly apologizing for a movie that the US government had no part in producing, financing, or distributing.

To be critical of a foreign policy that would release that kind of statement while your embassy is under attack doesn't strike me as reprehensible. Opportunist? Sure. Reprehensible? Hardly.
I disagree with the bolded parts. Romney just wanted to make a criticism of Obama, and pounced before having all the facts.

1. The Cairo consulate press statements (and tweets) were meant to acknowledge Muslim anger/offense at that stupid movie, distance the US from religious hate speech, and -- more importantly -- quell an escalating situation on the ground. It was NOT an apology for the movie....or free speech.

2. Romney tried to turn snapshots in time, during an evolving situation, into a broad Obama foreign policy criticism. He manipulated words and intent to fit his recurring theme -- the "No Apologies" campaign tour. That's being an opportunist, for political self-interest. Doing it by condemning our own embassy/ambassadors, while they were handling an escalating emergency, is that's reprehensible.



And in case you think I'm being partisan, there are plenty of Republicans who agree:

.... there is nothing wrong in principle with making clear to people, who have yet to embrace the categorical right to free speech, that Americans and their government deplore the deplorable, that we reject vile attacks on Muslims as vigorously as we reject vile anti-Semitic attacks.


To do so does not constitute sympathy for the people besieging our embassy, as Gov. Romney alleged. Nor is at an apology for America, as some Obama critics have claimed. It’s an expression of our decency.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...ks_115416.html






The Romney camp has released proposed answers for others to defend his misled strategy, and make it look like strong American diplomacy after-the-fact. Doublespeak negative? http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ibya-response/

Questions & Answers:


Don’t you think it was appropriate for the embassy to condemn the controversial movie in question? Are you standing up for movies like this?


– Governor Romney rejects the reported message of the movie. There is no room for religious hatred or intolerance.
– But we will not apologize for our constitutional right to freedom of speech.
– Storming U.S. missions and committing acts of violence is never acceptable, no matter the reason. Any response that does not immediately and decisively make that clear conveys weakness.
– If pressed: Governor Romney repudiated this individual in 2010 when he attempted to mobilize a Quran-burning movement. He is firmly against any expression of religious hatred or intolerance.