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| Obama advisers: Romney playing politics over terror attack - New York Daily News Posted: 14 Oct 2012 09:27 AM PDT  Vallery Jean/FilmMagicPresident Barack Obama's advisors say he is preparing to be more energetic in Tuesday's debate. President Obama's top advisers accused Mitt Romney of trying to "exploit" the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya by hammering the White House for alleged security failures and mixed messages. "What we need to do is stop playing politics with this issue," senior campaign adviser Robert Gibbs said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. Obama strategist David Axelrod chimed in on "Fox News Sunday" that Romney "is working hard to exploit this issue." "From the beginning of this issue, before any facts were known, he was cravenly trying to exploit it," he said. Romney was chided by members of his own party for alleging - within hours of the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens — that Obama was weak on terror. But since then, the White House has been under fire from critics — for incorrectly declaring the attack was not a preplanned terrorist operation and failing to secure the consulate on the 9/11 anniversary. At a congressional hearing last week, a State Department security officer revealed he was rebuffed after he asked higher-ups for extra agents to protect the Benghazi compound. Vice President Joe Biden didn't clear up the confusion when he said during his Thursday debate with Paul Ryan, "We weren't told they wanted more security." The White House tried to explain the comment by saying Biden meant he and Obama had not been personally told of the request. But Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said Sunday that Biden has "directly contradicted" sworn testimony, and that the White House was trying to dodge responsibility. "What we have seen is a constantly shifting story from this administration," Gillespie told Fox News. Biden's son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, sneered at the Romney campaign for going after his father on the foreign-policy front. "These are folks that seem to be more interested in kind of pounding their chest to make the neoconservatives who advise them proud than they are about being serious about foreign policy and protecting our national interests around the world," he said on ABC's "This Week." And Gibbs fired back at GOP: "We don't need wing tip cowboys. We don't need shot-from-the-hip diplomacy." With just three weeks left in the campaign, the Republicans are likely to keep using Libya to take some of the polish off Obama's foreign-policy credentials. It's unclear, however, how much opportunity Romney will have to focus on it during Tuesday's presidential debate — a town hall format with questions from undecided voters. This debate could be critical for Obama, who took a hit in many polls after his passive performance in the Oct. 3 faceoff with an aggressive Romney. Gibbs said the President has learned from his mistakes and plans to step up his game. "He knew when he walked off that stage and he also knew as he's watched the tape of that debate that he's got to be more energetic," he said on CNN. "I think the President will be very forward-looking." Romney's team said the candidate is prepared for a more combative Obama at Long Island's Hofstra University Tuesday night. "The President can change his style. He can change his tactics. He can't change his record, he can't change his policies," Gillespie told CNN. |
| Brit Hume: Biden looked like 'a cranky old man to some extent, debating a ... - Daily Caller Posted: 11 Oct 2012 08:30 PM PDT Following Thursday night's vice presidential debate, Fox News Channel senior political analyst Brit Hume said the way viewers react to Vice President Joe Biden's aggressive demeanor will dictate who "won" the debate. "Well, it all depends on what they think of Joe Biden and his demeanor," Hume said. "If you read the transcript, you might conclude that the vice president had a very strong debate, that he had a lot to say, that he was strongly critical of Gov. Romney and his program, that he held his own. But that's not all there is to it. We had the split screen, much as we did during the presidential debate. And what you saw while Paul Ryan was talking, as others have pointed out was smirking, laughing, smiling, mugging by the vice president." Hume said Biden risked coming across as "a cranky old man." "My sense was that it was so compelling that people probably couldn't take their eyes off of it. And so, it will come down to whether or not people thought that was attractive or not. Myself, I thought it was unattractive. I thought it was rude. And I have a feeling it will come across to an awful lot of people as rude. It looked like a cranky old man to some extent, debating a polite young man. |
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