PPI President Will Marshall discusses Obama’s foreign policy advantages in Politico’s Arena:
Twice Mitt Romney has tried to capitalize politically on the murder of the U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans in Libya, and twice the issue has blown up in his face. First, as the tragedy was unfolding, he rushed out a statement falsely accusing the administration of apologizing for the video that sparked violent protests in Benghazi and elsewhere. And in the last debate, moderator Candy Crowley had to correct Romney’s erroneous claim that it took President Obama weeks to call the attack an act of terrorism.
These misfires show that Romney, though surefooted when it comes to critiquing the president’s economic record, has anything but a deft touch on defense and foreign policy. The president has a golden opportunity tonight to contrast his experience and grasp of global complexities with Romney’s vague and simplistic invocations of American strength and exceptional virtue.
Lacking a global outlook of his own, Romney probably will try again tonight to make the Libya episode a parable of weak presidential leadership. In Romney’s retro world, it’s 1979 all over again, with Obama in the role of Jimmy Carter and Libya standing in for Iran. But even as he tries to channel Ronald Reagan, Romney often sounds more like George W. Bush, especially when he claims that bold assertions of American power and leadership will bring our enemies to heel and cause the rest of the world to fall in line. To which Obama has a compelling answer: Been there, done that.
Obama’s job tonight is to expose the unreality of Romney’s glib criticisms and force him to explain what he would actually do differently if he becomes Commander in Chief. With the spotlight momentarily off the economy, it’s the president’s turn to take the offensive.
Read it at Politico
