Mitt Romney Criticized For Hamfisted Libya Statement On 9/11, Attacking Obama For Response To Attacks

Mitt Romney has, in the past, demonstrated a certain lack of finesse when it comes to foreign policy — witness basically every single thing that happened from the second he left American soil for his disastrous trip to the London Olympics until his plane touched back down again in the US — but his response to the White House after yesterday’s deadly attacks in Libya and Egypt has widely been criticized as a show of ill-preparedness to handle America’s affairs abroad.

Late on the evening of September 11th, the Romney campaign (which had reportedly planned to embargo a statement until 12:01 am), released commentary on the attacks as well as a pointed critique aimed at the president, straight from the Dinesh D’Souza School Of Creative Imaginings And Extra-Sensory Perception.

In his statement, Romney fell back on his frequent and unsupported assertion that President Obama is in the habit of apologizing to other nations for America’s actions, claiming the White House sympathized with the attackers:

“I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi … It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

You know Mitt Romney has screwed it up big time when even the Republicans actually say out loud that he made the wrong move, and according to a “very senior Republican foreign policy hand” that spoke to Buzzfeed, the situation was a “utter disaster.” The unnamed GOPer said:

“They were just trying to score a cheap news cycle hit based on the embassy statement and now it’s just completely blown up.”

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt issued a statement in response, saying:

“We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack.”

Reaction to Romney’s odd response to the attacks has been nearly across-the-board regarded as imprecise, insensitive and ultimately, harmful to his campaign — but this morning in Jacksonville, Romney doubled down on his remarks when asked about inconsistencies in the statement.