VAN METER, Iowa -- Mitt Romney said Tuesday that he had actually met one of the Navy SEALs to have been killed in the Sept. 11 attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

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Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney shakes hands during a campaign rally, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012, in Van Meter, Iowa.

A day after delivering a major foreign policy speech -- which included sharp criticism of President Barack Obama's response to the terrorist attack -- Romney acknowledged having met the SEAL, Glen Doherty, during a past holiday party.

"This is kind of a strange story so bear with me here," Romney told an audience on a farm outside of Des Moines.  He went on to say that he and his wife, Ann Romney, had been invited to a neighborhood Christmas party a few years ago, but they inadvertently went to the wrong party.

"We were a little embarrassed, but they treated us well nonetheless.  And I got to meet some really interesting people," Romney continued. 

One of them, Romney said, was a former Navy SEAL from Romney's home state of Massachusetts.

"He told me that he keeps going back to the Middle East," Romney recalled.

"He cares very deeply about the people there. He served in the military there, went back from time to time to offer security services and so forth to people there. You can imagine how I felt when I found out that he was one of the two former Navy SEALS killed in Benghazi on September 11th."

The events in Benghazi have become a charged issue in the campaign, as Obama defends himself against charges that the consulate was poorly protected.

The attack resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the first ambassador killed in the line duty in three decades. Three other Americans were killed, including two former U.S. Navy SEALs working as security contractors.

The Romney campaign later confirmed to reporters that the man Romney met at that party in La Jolla, CA, several years ago was Doherty, of Winchester, Mass.

A neighbor of Romney's reached out to the candidate last week to notify Romney of the coincidence. Doherty's sister said the campaign had notified her family that Romney would speak about the late SEAL, and the family set up a foundation in his honor in anticipation of the mention.

SWANTON, Ohio — Mitt Romney's major foreign policy speech got a boost just a few minutes after it ended from running mate Paul Ryan, who praised the address and also talked up foreign policy during a stop in the battleground state of Ohio.

“I just watched on TV what you watched on that TV,” Ryan said inside a hangar at Toledo Express Airport, where the crowd viewed  #mce_temp_url# live on a monitor. “We just watched what leadership looks like.”

After referencing the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four American diplomats, Ryan vowed that if elected, the GOP ticket will keep America safe.

“The point is, in a Romney administration, when we know that we are clearly attacked by terrorists, we won’t be afraid to say what it is. If terrorists attack us, we will say we had a terrorist attack and more importantly, we will do what is necessary to prevent that from happening by having a strong military, by making sure that our adversaries do not test us, do not think that we are a weak and in retreat,” he said.

Standing with several veterans scattered throughout the nearly 1,000-person crowd Monday morning, the congressman hit President Barack Obama, accusing him of trying to distort his record of helping veterans while in Congress.

“Because President Obama does not have a good record to run on, he has resorted to trying to distort ours. Lately, he talks about what Bob Latta and I did in the House. He is mischaracterizing our support for veterans,” Ryan claimed. “Let me make one thing very clear, in the House budget that we drafted and that we passed, we fully met and exceeded the President’s request for veterans funding…by 270 million dollars. That means, we saw a commitment, a promise that our government has made to our veterans.”

He promised: “These people put their lives on the line and in a Romney administration we will always keep our promise and our commitment to our veterans."

Ryan’s foreign policy credentials – which were questioned when Romney first selected Ryan to join the ticket – will likely be brought up Thursday during the vice presidential debate against Vice President Joe Biden.

Speaking about the military and attacking Obama’s foreign policy is not new for the Republican vice presidential nominee, as he has addressed the topics during speeches in both Colorado and Florida.

Ryan now heads to Michigan to finish off the day — making his first appearance back in the state since Aug. 24th — holding a public rally in Rochester and an education roundtable in Detroit. 

Mary Altaffer / AP

Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. speaks during a campaign event, Monday, Oct. 8, 2012, in Swanton, Ohio.

Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney \arrives to deliver a foreign policy speech at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., Monday, Oct. 8, 2012.

Updated at 12:20 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of leading a rudderless foreign policy, saying Monday that the threat of conflict in the Middle East is greater than it was four years ago.

The Republican presidential nominee delivered a major policy address at the Virginia Military Institute, which was intended to distinguish Romney from Obama on questions of foreign policy, while also casting Romney as a steady, presidential and plausible commander-in-chief for voters. 

Recommended: First Thoughts: Has the race changed?

The speech focused heavily on upheaval in the Middle East — the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, popular uprisings in Syria and Egypt, the Iranian nuclear program and America's relationship with Israel — to level the charge that Obama had chosen to "lead from behind" as president.

"The president is fond of saying that 'the tide of war is receding.'  And I want to believe him as much as anyone," Romney said. "But when we look at the Middle East today … it is clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office."

Romney essentially argued that, in most instances, Obama had failed to project a clear and coherent American policy abroad. The GOP presidential hopeful suggested that he would use U.S. power with greater clarity, taking a tougher tack versus Iran and working to support allied forces in Syria, where the Assad regime has launched assaults on rebels that have left thousands dead.

Much of the speech dealt with the recent outbreak of violence in Libya, where a siege on a U.S. consulate — waged apparently by terrorists — left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Romney said those attacks were "likely the work of forces affiliated with those that attacked our homeland on Sept. 11, 2001," reflecting the emerging admission by the Obama administration that the Libya incident was a terrorist attack, rather than a spontaneous protest connected to a web video about Islam, as had originally been thought.

Romney's handling of the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack, though, had partly prompted his decision to deliver such a broad-reaching foreign policy address as today's. The candidate earlier had charged the administration with, essentially, siding with the attackers on the U.S. consulate — an argument that was labeled by critics as capricious, since it came just hours after Stevens' death.

"I also believe the administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt, instead of condemning their actions," Romney said at the time. "It’s never too early for the United States government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values."

Today, Romney placed blame for the attacks "solely" with those who had launched them, but argued that Obama had nonetheless been asleep at the wheel throughout the crisis.

"It is the responsibility of our president to use America’s great power to shape history — not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events," Romney said. "Unfortunately, that is exactly where we find ourselves in the Middle East under President Obama."

That theme echoed throughout Romney's remarks, which included a vow to tighten sanctions against Iran's nuclear program and reverse a set of automatic spending cuts — which would fall heavily on the defense budget — set to take place at the beginning of 2013, barring action by Congress.

Romney also called for a closer relationship between the U.S. and Israel, a hallmark of the Republican nominee's campaign speeches, along with expanded free-trade pacts in the Middle East and beyond.

Slideshow: Mitt Romney's life in politics

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From governor's son to presidential contender, a look at the life of Republican Mitt Romney.

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The former Massachusetts governor also said he would act more forcefully to encourage popular uprisings in Syria and Egypt. Romney said he would "identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values" in Syria, and arm them. In Egypt, Romney said he would try to influence that government's development to support democracy and their peace treaty with Israel.

Monday's stagecraft, though, was essentially an effort to offer up Romney as a reasonable alternative to Obama as a world leader, and distinguish the two candidates more meaningfully. There were details, though, that were absent from Romney's speech; he didn't outline the standard by which he would authorize more sanctions or military action versus Iran. And while Romney called Obama's decision to withdraw the last "surge" troops from Afghanistan last month a "politically timed retreat," Romney would only have kept those troops there a few months longer, through the height of the fighting season.

Obama enjoys an advantage over Romney on both the question of which candidate would be a better commander-in-chief and which candidate voters trust to better manage foreign policy.

Forty-seven percent of voters said in last week's NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll that Obama would be a better commander in chief; 39 percent of registered voters preferred Romney. On the question of who would best handle foreign policy, Obama led 46 to 40 percent.

But there are additional signs that Obama faces vulnerabilities. Americans were split, 46 to 45 percent, in disapproving of the president's handling of the situation in Egypt, Libya and other Arab countries that are suffering from unrest.

"We just watched what leadership looks like," said Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, in Ohio shortly after Romney's remarks concluded.

Still, the election is expect to focus primarily on issues of the economy, while foreign policy takes a backseat to more dominant pocketbook issues.

Foreign policy and national security strategy, though, will each be litigated further over the course of the campaign. One of the two remaining debates between Obama and Romney will be mostly dedicated to that subject, and this Thursday's vice presidential debate will pit Ryan — whose expertise rests on budgetary issues, not foreign policy — against Vice President Joe Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Updated at 8:40a.m.ET: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – In a major foreign policy speech Monday Mitt Romney will attempt to stake out a more activist public position than President Barack Obama on supporting the rebels in Syria's civil war. Romney plans to say that he believes in working with partner nations to arm rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashir al-Assad.

Slideshow: Behind Syrian rebel lines

Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.

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He would equip the rebels – “who share our values” -- with heavy weapons to take out "tanks, helicopters and fighter jets," according to the remarks. The Obama administration has refrained from doing so out of concern that the weapons would end up in terrorist hands, according to The New York Times.

Romney will also argue that the U.S. must support the rebels to develop influence and good relations with the Syria’s future leaders.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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Syria is just one area Romney will touch on in a speech in which the Republican nominee will attempt to portray himself as a leader firmly in the peace-through-strength tradition of Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, while casting President Obama as an ineffective leader on a dangerous and constantly-evolving world stage.

Related: Who are the Syrian rebels?

Romney will deliver a 30-minute address, titled "The Mantle of Leadership," later Monday at the Virginia Military Institute, his 10th address on the topic of foreign policy since summer 2011.

Recommended: Obama urges supporters not to lose enthusiasm

The former Massachusetts governor's speech, like the others before it, will focus on a vision of peace through strength. It will include new details on how Romney would address current global hotspots and repeat regular stump speech staples – such as the importance of averting planned defense cuts, expanding and reinvesting in the U.S. military and working closely with allies abroad, especially Israel.

In prepared remarks released Sunday to reporters, Romney laid out global issues where his campaign hopes to draw "great contrast" with Obama – notably on Libya, Syria and Egypt.

Slideshow: Mitt Romney's life in politics

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From governor's son to presidential contender, a look at the life of Republican Mitt Romney.

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The speech links the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi last month to al-Qaida, a position Romney has rarely engaged in on the campaign trail. Romney calls the attack "likely the work of the same forces that attacked our homeland on September 11th, 2001," and "the deliberate work of terrorists." The attack was not, he says, a spontaneous response to a movie trailer maligning the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, as the Obama administration initially said.

As he did at the Clinton Global Initiative last month, Romney will argue that U.S. aid to Egypt should be linked with promises from Egyptian leaders to uphold the 1979 peace treaty with Israel and to protect minorities, including the country’s Coptic Christians.

Romney, who offended some Palestinians with remarks he made in Israel suggesting the economic disparities between the Palestinian territories and Israel were based in part on cultural differences, will also promise to "recommit" to helping form a democratic Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new President will bring the chance to begin anew," say Romney’s prepared remarks.

On the infamous "47 percent" tape of a Florida fundraising event in May, Romney predicted the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would "remain [an] unsolved problem."

"We have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it," Romney said at the May fundraiser, comparing the peace process to the decades-long standoff between China and Taiwan. "And we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately somehow, something will happen to resolve it."

During a Sunday conference call with reporters, Romney foreign policy advisers said Monday’s foreign policy speech was meant to align Romney with the foreign policy tradition of Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan and George Marshall.

"If you look at Harry Truman and John Kennedy and the use of power by Bill Clinton in his second term that is a much different approach than Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama so I do think it’s a bipartisan tradition, it’s a recognition that strength is not provocative, its weakness that’s provocative," former Ambassador Rich Williamson, a Romney foreign policy adviser, said on the call. "There’s a fundamental difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and that’s part of the choice that American voters will be asked to make."

Democrats fired back preemptively at that characterization.

"Mainstream foreign policy isn't what Mitt Romney is putting forward: having plans to start wars but not end them; wanting to keep 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely; exploding our defense spending to levels the Pentagon has not asked for, with no way to pay for it; insulting our allies and partners around the world on the campaign trail; and calling Russia our number-one geopolitical foe," Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement Sunday. "If that's where Mitt Romney thinks the mainstream is, he needs to find a better compass."

Aboard Air Force One Sunday, Jen Psaki, the Obama campaign's traveling press secretary, was more cutting when asked her views on the speech.

"We're not going to be lectured by someone who has been an unmitigated disaster on foreign policy every time he's dipped his toe in the foreign policy waters," Psaki told reporters. "The only person who has offended Europe more is probably Chevy Chase."

ABOARD THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN PLANE-- Mitt Romney said Friday following a conversation with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that he was hopeful that the U.S. wouldn't have to use military force to halt Iran's progress toward nuclear weapons.

The Republican presidential nominee told reporters traveling with him that he thought a peaceful resolution in Iran was still within reach, though Romney cautioned that it was important to leave open the option to use military force.

"I do not believe that in the final analysis we will have to use military action," Romney told reporters traveling with him from Philadelphia to Boston. " I certainly hope we don’t have to."

The GOP presidential nominee, who has long advocated the U.S. taking a tougher stand against the Iranian regime, said despite his optimism it would be important in future negotiations with Iran to keep a military option on the table.

"It must be something which is known by the Iranians as a possible tool to be employed to prevent them from becoming nuclear," Romney said of a possible use of military force. "But I certainly hope that we can prevent any military action from having to be taken."

The remarks came roughly one hour after Romney concluded his telephone conversation with the Israeli prime minister, who delivered an address to the United Nations yesterday in which he advocated for the drawing of a bright "red line" with Iran's leadership - offering a clear point of no return which would trigger Western military action and hopefully dissuade the regime from further pursuing its nuclear program.

Netanyahu also spoke by phone with President Barack Obama earlier today, and Romney was asked to draw a distinction between his views on Iran and those of the president. Romney said the administration's policies have moved more to mirror with his own views over time, pointing to newer, more aggressive sanctions placed on the Iranian regime as evidence, and saying he would continue to see how well Obama would match his rhetoric to his actions.

"His words more recently are more consistent with the words that I’ve been speaking for some time," Romney said. "And we’ll see what actions he pursues."

President Obama believes the violence in Libya was a terrorist attack, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters today, the first explicit acknowledgement of the president's view on the nature of the attack.

"It is certainly the case that it is our view as an administration, it is the presidents view, that it was a terrorist attack," Carney said during a gaggle with reporters aboard Air Force One Wednesday morning.

His administration's view for about a week has in fact been that the attack was an act of terrorism, but the president himself has refrained from characterizing it as such, even when asked point-blank about it during an interview that aired Tuesday on ABC's "The View."

Asked by co-host Barbara Walters whether the attack was terrorism, the president responded, "There's no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn't just a mob action."

And during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday the president referred to the deadly Benghazi consulate attack as an “assault on America” but stopped short of calling it terrorism. 

The president’s seeming reluctance to use the term “terrorism” was further highlighted by comments Libyan President Mohammed Magarief made to NBC’s Ann Curry during an interview that aired Thursday. 

Magarief did not back down from labeling the attack as terrorism even while trying to walk a fine line.

“This is how I am calling it as…a Libyan official," he said. "But it is for President Obama, Secretary Clinton to describe the way they like and they feel right. I mean, you have your terminology.  And we have our terminology.  It's an act of terror."

Magarief also contradicted the White House and other administration officials on the nature of the attack saying that outrage over a controversial movie about the prophet Muhammad had “nothing to do with this attack.”

Today Carney repeated that the investigation into the Benghazi attack was “ongoing.”  He continued that the administration has provided information “Not based on speculation, but based on what we know.”

NEW YORK -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday laid out his vision for the future of foreign aid, one tied closely to his domestic policy prescriptions which promote the power of free enterprise and of hard work to lift people out of poverty.

In an address to one of the nation's pre-eminent philanthropic groups, the Clinton Global Initiative (the namesake group of former President Bill Clinton), Romney outlined a foreign aid strategy that would emphasize public and private partnerships to boost the economies of developing nations.

"For American foreign aid to become more effective, its got to embrace the principles that you see in these global initiatives," Romney said, referring to his host, the Clinton Global Initiative's annual conference. "The power of partnerships, access the transformative nature of free enterprise, and leverage of the abundant resources that can come from the private sector."

Romney then outlined his views on foreign aid, which he said should be tied to the opening of markets in developing nations. The GOP presidential candidate argued that foreign aid -- coming from either government or private investments -- should be focused on developing long-term economic opportunity so that the money that is spent has a better chance of making a lasting difference.

"A temporary aid package can give an economy a boost. It can fund projects. It can pay some bills. It can employ some people for a time," Romney said. "But it can’t sustain an economy -- not for the long term. It can’t pull the whole cart, if you will -- because at some point, the money runs out. 

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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The former private equity CEO then debuted a new model of public and private development in his speech, which he referred to as "Prosperity Pacts."

"To foster work and enterprise in the Middle East and in other developing countries, I will initiate something I'll call 'Prosperity Pacts.' Working with the private sector, the program will identify the barriers to investment, trade, and entrepreneurship and entrepreneurialism in developing nations," Romney said. "In exchange for removing those barriers and opening their markets to U.S. investment and trade, developing nations will receive U.S. assistance packages focused on developing the institutions of liberty, the rule of law, and property rights."

"We will focus our efforts on small and medium-size businesses. Microfinance has been an effective tool at promoting enterprise and prosperity, but we've got to expand support to small and medium-size businesses that are oftentimes too large for microfinance, but too small for traditional banking," he continued.

The 20-minute speech by the GOP challenger to President Barack Obama marked perhaps his most detailed presentation of how the United States might interact with the developing world in a Romney administration. It came just hours before Obama was set to address the United Nations general assembly across midtown Manhattan, in a stretch of campaigning in which foreign policy has supplanted the economy as the election's driving force.

Romney was introduced in his remarks by former Clinton, who has assumed an outsized role in the presidential race in recent weeks, as the Romney campaign elevated the former president in an effort to paint Obama as too liberal and far outside the centrist Clinton tradition. Clinton only turned about to offer an outspoken defense of Obama at the Democratic National Convention, a stirring speech which many analysts credit for boosting Obama's poll numbers immediately thereafter.

Taking the podium, Romney joked about his host's warm introduction.

"If there's one thing we've learned in this election season by the way, its that a few words from Bill Clinton can do a man a lot of good," Romney deadpanned, continuing as the laughter in the room subsided. "All I've gotta do now is wait a couple of days for that bounce to happen."

Good luck trying to avoid Obama, Romney today. They’ll be doing interviews and high-profile speeches in the media capital of the world … Romney wins a news cycle … The risk for Obama in trying to do no harm in meeting with foreign leaders … In UN speech, Obama to take on two Romney criticisms … This might be Romney’s make-or-break-week in Ohio … The shrunken battleground (what happened to PA, NM and what does it mean for the future of politics) … Obama up in new polls in OH, FL, PA, NC … Akin’s drop dead deadline … And Massachusetts Senate race takes a nasty turn. … And just 1,000 hours to Election Day – tick, tick, tick.

*** Saturation: We’re now inside 1,000 hours to Election Day (can you believe it!?!?!), and get ready to see A LOT of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, starting with a near unprecedented level of media saturation. Let’s run through the schedule: the two candidates are holding high-profile speeches -- with world leaders and a former popular president and both appear in interviews for NBC’s “Education Nation” – all in the media capital of the world. On top of that, Romney will appear in distinct interviews today that will air on NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox and that doesn’t count the usual slate of local TV interviews. Bottom line: It’s going to be nearly impossible to miss either of them today. And New Yorkers, by the way, good luck with the traffic. Here’s the rundown: 7:00 am hour: Clip of Obama’s interview with NBC on Education Nation aired on TODAY. 9:00 am ET: Romney speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative. 10:00 am ET: Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly. 11:00 am ET: Obama interview on The View airs. 11:00 am ET: Romney interviewed by NBC’s Brian Williams at Education Nation (then heads to Vandalia, OH, for a 3:00 pm ET rally with Paul Ryan and Sen. Rand Paul). Noon ET: Obama speaks at CGI (then returns to Washington). That’s a lot of Obama and Romney.

*** Romney wins a news cycle: While both will be very public today, what will be interesting to see is if Romney’s doing as much attacking today as he did yesterday. It’s not likely. His speech at CGI, for example, will focus on his vision for foreign assistance and he’s presenting a fairly interesting public-private idea for foreign assistance that will likely get lost in partisan attacks but deserves some attention. Back to the raw politics -- yesterday, Romney and his campaign had a plan and they executed. Sure, some will say they were chasing the news cycle, but they were chasing with a plan. They had a point they wanted to drive home – on “bumps in the road” before the UN General Assembly and did so with mini interviews with all the networks and were on message. They were able to win a news cycle, which right now, a one-day win is important compared with what they’ve been through over the last three weeks starting with Clint Eastwood.

*** The harm in trying to do no harm: With football on the minds of many today (after last night’s refereeing debacle – full disclosure: one of us is a big Packers fan), Obama’s plan today has a whiff of prevent defense. What it’s doing – like in a prevent – is it allowing the opposition to pick up yards over the middle and get a couple of first downs. If you compare former President Bush’s 2004 schedule at the U.N. and Obama’s it’s a pretty big difference. It made sense politically for Bush to meet with world leaders, given that his election was largely about foreign policy, and we get Obama’s strategy – first, do no harm, don’t make any news before the debates, take the criticism from the “media elites.” But it doesn’t show a lot of courage -- and winding up on The View (and not doing one-on-one meetings with foreign leaders while they are conveniently in NYC) makes him subject to criticism from the right. If foreign policy is supposed to be one of Obama’s strengths and multilateralism is a hallmark of his policy, why wouldn’t Obama want to HIGHLIGHT that? Why wouldn’t he want to meet with both Israel’s Netanyahu and Egypt’s Morsi? And above politics, it’s striking with all that’s going on in the Arab world that the ostensible leader of the free world is not meeting with anyone. For their part, the Obama folks are counting on the public not caring about this issue as much as the Romney campaign or the media. And perhaps they will be proven right. After all, Mr. and Mrs. Ohio will see the president address the United Nations. Sure looks like he’s dealing with foreign affairs.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Joy Behar talk during a break in a taping of "The View" at ABC Studios September 24, 2012 in New York, New York.

*** Obama to take on two Romney criticisms: All of that said, Obama is addressing the U.N., and that speech, according to excerpts, will likely make the “bumps in the road” attack seem pretty petty. Obama will say, per prepared remarks, "The attacks of the last two weeks are not simply an assault on America. They are also an assault on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.” He will add, “We must declare that this violence and intolerance has no place among our United Nations." On Iran, Obama will say, “America wants to resolve this issue through diplomacy, and we believe that there is still time and space to do so. But that time is not unlimited.” And: “The United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon." Those statements on Libya and Iran go right to the heart of two of Romney’s chief criticisms – that the president said developments in the Middle East and North Africa were “bumps in the road,” and that Obama hasn’t been tough enough on Iran. By the way, we mentioned The View above, Obama did talk foreign policy on the show and largely admitted the attacks were terrorism: "There's no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn't just a mob action." Speaking of “bumps,” flashback to 2005, when then-Bush foreign policy adviser, now Romney foreign policy adviser Dan Senor said of violence in Iraq: “It's democracy. We often said that when we're there, democracy is messy. If you want clean and tidy, there's dictatorship.”

*** Romney’s make-or-break week for Ohio: We noted yesterday the importance of Ohio in this presidential election and to Romney. But it’s hard to overstate it – this may be the make-or-break week for the campaign in the state. If this week’s bus tour doesn’t move the needle, as the Romney campaign might say, they very well could decide to all but write off the Buckeye State. They won’t say it explicitly; they’ll go through the motions, but they may have no choice than to try and shore up or make in roads in places like Wisconsin, Colorado Florida, and Virginia.

*** Cheap applause line alert for Battleground Wisconsin: Which candidate takes a stand against replacement refs? Does Paul Ryan do it, given he’s a Packers fan? Something to watch today perhaps. Ryan holds a rally in Cincinnati at 11:30 am ET.

*** Ad spending – the shrunken battleground: Last presidential cycle, then-candidate Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain were running ads in 21 states, according to SMG Delta – Obama (21): AZ, CO, FL, GA, IN, IA, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NM, NC, ND, OH, PA, VA, WV, and WI; McCain (16): CO, FL, IN, IA, ME, MN, MO, NV, NH, NM, NC, OH, PA, VA, WV, WI. This week, both campaigns are spending (so far) $19 million in the exact same states and there are just nine of them – IA, CO, FL, NC, NH, NV, OH, VA, and WI, with one outside group (Restore Our Future) running almost $1 million in ads in MI. Just look at all those states from last time to this. It’s a striking shift – the candidates are spending more money in fewer states and in fewer markets. Nowhere, by the way, that’s left out jumps out more than Pennsylvania and New Mexico. If this election is supposed to be like 2004, remember, George W. Bush only lost the Keystone state 2.5 points and he WON New Mexico (albeit by less than a point). It highlights, once again, how Romney has to largely run the table in these toss-up states and -- in the bigger political picture for the future – how the changing demographics currently favor Democrats. (With outside groups factored in, total spending is more than $33 million, with Team Romney outspending Team Obama $18.8 million to $14.5 million.)

*** Polling update – Obama up in FL, OH: Speaking of Ohio, another poll shows Obama with a sizable lead. A Washington Post poll has Obama up 52-44%. … In Florida, the Post has Obama up 51-47%. … In Pennsylvania, a Mercyhurst University poll shows the president with a 48-40% lead. … And in North Carolina, a Civitas poll (conducted by National Research) shows Obama up 49-45%.

*** Akin, remember that? And Massachusetts gets nasty: Today’s the drop dead deadline for Todd Akin (R) to drop out of the Missouri Senate race. Remember that story? It’s not going to happen. Watch your TV sets in Missouri at 5:01 pm for those McCaskill ads featuring Republicans obliterating Akin. … In Massachusetts, the Senate race has taken a nasty turn – focusing again on Elizabeth Warren’s Native American claims. Both candidates don’t seem to particularly like each other and it’s getting personal. There’s some risk for Brown here though -- if he goes too far, he might make Warren look like a victim. There’s a fine line here. You do wonder if he needs to dial it back a little. By the way, the new tack probably means Brown’s polling shows him down.

*** Education Nation – starkly different visions: As part of NBC’s Education Nation, First Read will have a detailed look later this morning at where the candidates stand on education. The subject has peeked into the 2012 campaign with Obama's push for low-interest student loans, Romney's contrasting views (“shop around”) on how to pay for college, Obama seizing on comments Romney made on class sizes for a TV ad, and of course debate over proposed domestic cuts in the Ryan budget. But, like on so many other issues, Obama and Romney would take starkly different approaches, if elected. Obama would likely try to expand many of the same initiatives he has pursued in his first term -- a reform-minded agenda implemented largely through the Department of Education and outside the purview of Congress. That agenda includes content standards that will be implemented in at least 45 states by 2014. Obama, who has not always been in the favor of the teachers’ unions that strongly support him, would continue to try and implement reforms while working with the unions. Romney, on the other hand, takes a more adversarial approach to unions, which he sees, in large measure, as part of the problem. Romney’s plan calls for vouchers and a restructuring of funding for special-needs and low-income students that would assign money directly to individuals instead of schools and school districts.

Countdown to 1^st presidential debate: 8 days
Countdown to VP debate: 16 days
Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 21 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 27 days
Countdown to Election Day: 42 days

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Peace in the Middle East -- probably not going to happen, and it’s Palestinians’ fault, according to Mitt Romney.

That was the sentiment from the Republican nominee for president at a closed-door fundraiser, according to released excerpts of video from the left-leaning magazine Mother Jones. Romney painted Palestinians as “having no interest” in peace and “committed to the destruction of Israel.”

“I'm torn by two perspectives in this regard,” Romney said when asked how he thinks the “Palestinian problem can be solved.” “One is the one that I've had for some time which is that the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish.”

This contradicts public comments from Romney that he believes in a "two-state solution." “I believe in a two-state solution which suggests there will be two states, including a Jewish state," he told the newspaper Haaretz.

Romney talks about the difficulty in establishing borders for an independent Palestine that would allow Israelis to thwart the flow of weapons from Iran to the region.

“We have got to keep the Iranians from bringing weaponry into the West Bank,” Romney said.

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He adds: “These are problems that are very hard to solve. And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes -- committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel. I just say there is no way, and so, what you do is you move things along the best way you can and hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize this is going to remain an unsolved problem.

“The idea of pushing on the Israelis to give something up, to give the Palestinians to act is the worst thing in the world. We have done that time and time again. It does not work. The only answer is to show strength again, American strength, American resolve and the Palestinians someday reach a point where they want peace or that we are trying to force peace on them. That is worth having a discussion. But until then it's just a political thing.”

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Romney has been sharply critical of President Obama's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship -- in particular, President Obama's urging Israel to halt settlement expansion.

American presidents have struggled for decades to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Though the United States has provided Israel with military support and arms, it has traditionally maintained a role of neutrality when it comes to discussing the peace process.

This is not the first time Romney has found himself in the midst of controversy when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian issues.

Back in July, at a fundraiser during his overseas trip, Romney implied Palestinian “culture” was to blame for lower gross-domestic product in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority versus Israel.

“Culture makes all the difference,” Romney said. “Culture makes all the difference.”

The Romney campaign did not immediately respond to an email request for response.

A full transcript of the exchange is below:

QUESTION: You were in Jerusalem.  And we appreciate you being there.  How do you think that the Palestinian problem can be solved? What are you going to do about it?

ROMNEY: “I'm torn by two perspectives in this regard.  One is the one that I've had for some time which is that the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish. Now why do I say that? Some might say because the Palestinians have West Bank and have security and have set up a separate nation for the Palestinians. And then come a couple of thorny questions. I don't have a map here to look at the geography. But the border between Israel and the West Bank is obviously right there right next to Tel Aviv, which is the financial capital the industrial capital of Israel the center of Israel.

It's what the border would be seven miles from Tel Aviv to what would the West Bank. Nine miles, okay I came close. Nine miles. The challenge is the other side of the West Bank, the other side of what would be this new Palestinian state would be Syria at one point or Jordan. Of course the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did to Lebanon what they did in Gaza, which is the Iranians would want to bring missile and armament into West bank and potentially threaten Israel. 

So Israel of course would have to say that can't happen; we have got to keep the Iranians from bringing weaponry into the West Bank. Well that means who, the Israelis would patrol the border between Jordan, Syria, and this new Palestinian nation. Well the Palestinians would say no way we are an independent nation, you can't guard our border with other Arab nations. How about the airport? How about flying into this Palestinian nation? Are we going to allow military aircraft to come in and weaponry to come in, if not who is going to keep it from coming in? Well the Israelis. The Palestinians are going to say well we are not an independent nation if Israel is able to come in and tell us what to land in our airport.

These are problems that are very hard to solve. And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes. Committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel. [inaudible] I just say there is no way and so what you do is you move things along the best way you can and hope for some degree of stability but you recognize this is going to remain an unsolved problem.

The idea of pushing on the Israelis to give something up, to give the Palestinians to act is the worst thing in the world we have done that time and time again. It does not work. The only answer is to show strength again, American strength, American resolve and the Palestinians someday reach a point where they want peace or that we are trying to force peace on them. That is worth having a discussion. But until then it's just a political thing.

Al Behrman / AP

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, at Seasongood Pavilion in Cincinnati.

CINCINNATI, OH - President Barack Obama touted his administration's new trade complaint against China here in swing state Ohio on Monday, characterizing GOP rival Mitt Romney’s vow to get tough on China as mere lip service.

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Obama played up his administration’s new World Trade Organization complaint, which accuses the Chinese government of illegally subsidizing its auto parts industry so as to make products more competitive in the American market. The complaint has particular resonance in states like Ohio, where the auto industry makes up a large share of the economy.

“These are subsidies that directly harm working men and women on the assembly lines in Ohio and Michigan and across the Midwest,” Obama told a crowd of 4,500 at Eden Park in Cincinnati. “It’s not right; it’s against the rules; and we will not let it stand.”

Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, has promised to take a tougher stand toward China if he were elected. That commitment, Obama argued, can’t be taken seriously given Romney’s record at Bain Capital, in which companies acquired by Bain sometimes outsourced jobs to other countries.

Obama accused Romney of having a mixed record on China, claiming that while Romney is “running around Ohio claiming he’s going to roll up his sleeves and take the fight to China,:

“Ohio, you can’t stand up to China when all you’ve done is send them our jobs,” Obama said. “You can talk a good game, but I like to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.”

Ohio, where one in every eight people has ties to the auto industry, is an ideal host for Obama’s attack on China’s auto industry practices, especially as both campaigns are vying fiercely over the state’s 18 electoral votes. Obama seemed to be widening his lead here slightly as of the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist University poll which showed him leading Romney 50 percent to 43 percent.

This was the second auto-focused WTO complaint Obama launched against China while speaking in Ohio. Back in July, he announced a citation against the country’s imposition of tariffs on American automobile imports while in Maumee, Ohio – right outside the auto-manufacturing hub of Toledo.

The Romney campaign pre-butted to Obama by releasing a statement from the candidate that new complaint was “too little, too late,” calling it a “campaign season trade case.”

“I will not wait until the last months of my presidency to stand up to China, or do so only when votes are at stake,” Romney said in the statement.

But today the White House insisted the complaint was not politically motivated.

“It's clear that this is a long and consistent part of the president's record,” deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said of the many WTO cases Obama has brought against China, during a gaggle with reporters on Air Force One en route to Cincinnati. He added that this trade complaint had been “months in the making.”

Obama continues his Ohio swing with a stop in Columbus later Monday afternoon. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought Sunday to assume a more neutral posture toward the American presidential election, distancing himself from Mitt Romney's suggestion that President Barack Obama has thrown Israel "under the bus."

The Israeli prime minister, appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," downplayed longstanding indications of pressure between himself and Obama and urged more bipartisanship from Americans in support of the Jewish state. Netanyahu told moderator David Gregory that his primary concern was preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, not influencing the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. 

To that end, Netanyahu said that Romney's accusation about Obama having essentially abandoned Israel on the world stage was "simply not the case and simply not my position."

"There's no bus, and we're not going to get into that discussion," Netanyahu said of Romney's charge, which the GOP presidential nominee first made in May of 2011 following a speech by the president calling on Israel to return to pre-1967 border lines as part of peace negotiations with Palestinians. 

Romney has used Israel to distinguish himself most sharply from Obama in the arena of foreign policy. The Republican nominee visited Israel during a stop on his trip abroad this summer, and is generally seen as more sympathetic to Israel's hawkish stance toward Iran. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his press conference with the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, Israel, on 02 February 2010.

Moreover, the relationship between Obama and Netanyahu is generally regarded as tense, a charge which the Israeli prime minister rejected. 

"I'm always pleased and happy to have a conversation with President Obama," said Netanyahu, downplaying reports that Obama had allegedly sought to avoid meeting with the prime minister during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly in New York. "We've had our discussions; our schedules on this visit didn't work out … but we continue to be in close consultations."

For all of Netanyahu's pleas, though, he has become a central figure in the U.S. presidential election. Romney seized upon the alleged snub during a fundraiser in New York on Friday. 

"I thought the president's decision not to meet with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu was an extraordinary confusing and troubling decision," said Romney, whose relationship with Netanyahu dates back to their shared days at Boston Consulting Group. "I don't know what the president is trying to send to the world in terms of a message but it does send a message. It sends a message not just to Israel but to the other nations throughout the Middle East."

Netanyahu himself argued his agitations toward Iran weren't meant to coincide with the American election. 

"What's guiding my statements is not the American political calendar but the Iranian nuclear calendar," he said. "It's really not a partisan political issue."

The political fighting over Israel plays out against a broader backdrop in which Iran is reportedly advancing in its development of a nuclear weapon; the U.S. also suffered four casualties — including Ambassador Christopher Stevens — this week in Libya after protesters stormed a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Other embassies suffered turmoil, and the State Department on Saturday ordered family and non-emergency personnel evacuated from posts in Sudan and Tunisia. 

Those developments have injected foreign policy into the center of the U.S. presidential election as Obama tries to quell protests against American embassies related to an amateur video mocking Islam. After the attack in Benghazi, Romney controversially pounced and suggested the administration's condemnation of the video was tantamount to "an apology for America’s values."

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also appearing Sunday on "Meet the Press," termed that accusation a "vacuous charge of weakness."

"I think the American people welcome strong, steady unified leadership — bipartisan in times of challenge," she said.