The Washington Post editorial board, which is usually a reliable ally for Republicans on foreign policy, today offered sharp criticism of Mitt Romney’s claim that Obama sympathized with the attacks on Americans in Egypt and Libya yesterday, which left four American foreign service officers dead and others wounded. The Post said Romney’s attack “is a discredit to his campaign.”

While the Romney campaign’s unofficial press secretary Jen Rubin tried to rally some troops around the GOP presidential nominee, it doesn’t look like the day is turning out to be a big winner for Romney as Republicans are turning out en masse to denounce his attacks:

“I don’t think President Obama sympathizes with those who attacked us. I don’t think any American does.” — Former Bush administration DHS Secretary Tom Ridge

“In the wake of this violence, the rush by Republicans — including Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and scores of other conservative critics — to condemn him for policies they claim helped precipitate the attacks is as tortured in its reasoning as it is unseemly in its timing.” — Mark Salter, former chief of staff and top campaign aide to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

“They were just trying to score a cheap news cycle hit based on the embassy statement and now it’s just completely blown up,” said a very senior Republican foreign policy hand, who called the statement an “utter disaster” and a “Lehman moment” — a parallel to the moment when John McCain, amid the 2008 financial crisis, failed to come across as a steady leader. … “This is just unbelievable — when they decide to play on it they completely bungle it.”

But [a former Romney adviser] does have a good read on Romney–a man with a healthy sense of pride, and who’s already invested in the idea of Obama as an appeaser. It was the only plausible explanation the adviser could think of for how “they stepped in it,” in his words.

“I don’t feel that Mr. Romney has been doing himself any favors, say in the past few hours, perhaps since last night. Sometimes when really bad things happen, when hot things happen, cool words or no words is the way to go.” — Conservative commentator Peggy Noonan

“This is a time when we all should reflect on those who continue to give, even the last measure, of service and sacrifice, to promoting and defending America’s interests abroad. This is above all a reminder that politics should end at the waters edge.” — Jon Huntsman, former Republican governor of Utan and 2012 GOP presidential candidate.

The Post editorial board had some advice for Romney. “He would do well to consider the example of Republican former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who issued a statement Wednesday lamenting ‘the tragic loss of life at our consulate,’ praising Mr. Stevens as ‘a wonderful officer and a terrific diplomat’ and offering ‘thoughts and prayers’ to ‘all the loved ones of the fallen.’”

Obama shot back at Romney this afternoon, saying he has “a tendency to shoot first and aim later.” “It’s important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts,” the president told 60 Minutes. “And that you’ve thought through the ramifications before you make them.”

WASHINGTON, DC — Mitt Romney’s accusation that President Obama “sympathizes” with those who attacked and killed four Americans in Libya, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, is finding few backers on Capitol Hill, even among Republicans.

ThinkProgress spoke with Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX), a conservative GOPer and a member of the House Tea Party Caucus, today about whether he believes Obama indeed “sympathizes” with those who attacked the United States, as Romney charged last night. “I don’t,” Marchant replied. We asked if that was a fair allegation to make: “I wouldn’t make that charge against him,” said the Texas congressman.

KEYES: Do you think that President Obama sympathizes with those who attacked our embassies in Libya and Egypt?

MARCHANT: I don’t.

KEYES: Do you think that’s a fair charge to make against him?

MARCHANT: I wouldn’t make that charge against him.

Watch it:

Marchant isn’t the only Republican unwilling to join Romney’s attacks. Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who served under President George W. Bush, told ThinkProgress today that he doesn’t believe “President Obama sympathizes with those who attacked us.” Other Republican officials, speaking off-the-record to BuzzFeed, criticized the remarks, saying Romney is “incompetent at talking effectively about foreign policy” and calling the episode an “utter disaster.”

Greg Noth contributed to this post.

WASHINGTON, DC — In an interview with ThinkProgress today, former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge criticized the charge, made by Mitt Romney, that President Obama “sympathizes” with those who attacked and killed four Americans in Libya.

Romney said in a press release last night that “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.” (When the U.S. Embassy in Cairo first addressed the situation, no attacks had yet occurred. The first comment from the embassy on the issue was to condemn religious incitement.)

ThinkProgress spoke with Ridge, who served under President George W. Bush from 2003 to 2005 and endorsed Romney earlier this year, on Capitol Hill today to get his reaction. He was unwilling to criticize Romney directly — “I don’t want to get in the he said, she said” — but rebuffed his charge that Obama’s sentiments were with those who carried out the attacks. “I don’t think President Obama sympathizes with those who attacked us,” Ridge said. “I don’t think any American does.”

KEYES: Do you think that President Obama sympathizes with those who attacked us and attacked the embassies?

RIDGE: No, I don’t think President Obama sympathizes with those who attacked us. I don’t think any American does. I’m not going to question the strength of his words.

Watch it:

Romney is finding few defenders for his charge, even among fellow Republicans. Buzzfeed spoke with a senior Republican foreign policy hand who said that Romney was “just trying to score a cheap news cycle hit” and now it’s become an “utter disaster.” Top Republicans in Congress are also refusing to echo their presidential candidate’s in press releases.

Greg Noth contributed to this post.

Weekly Standard editor and top neocon Bill Kristol hasn’t been afraid to criticize party nominee Mitt Romney in the past, but today he’s on his side. Kristol not only approved of Romney’s statement claiming President Obama “sympathized” with the rioters who attacked U.S. diplomats in Egypt and Libya, but also claimed “the events of September 11, 2012″ (carefully not stating the 9/11 anniversary outright) was an ideal time to go after Obama’s purported “weakness” on foreign policy. Kristol, writing on the Standard’s blog, said:

One can question the timing and tone of Mitt Romney’s statement last night. One can note he wasn’t as fluent and clear as he might have been at his press conference this morning. Still, the fact remains that the events of September 11, 2012, represent a big moment for the country. Romney is right to sense this, and to seize on this moment as an occasion to explain the difference between his foreign policy and President Obama’s. He’s right to reject the counsel of the mainstream media, which is to keep quiet and give President Obama a pass.

Kristol went on to say that “Romney is right to bring home the weakness of the Obama administration, exemplified in the disgraceful statement issued yesterday, September 11, by the American embassy in Cairo.”

It’s unclear why Kristol had to repeatedly write “September 11,” when referring to what happened yesterday in Egypt and Libya, but his criticism was echoed by prominent Republican columnist Byron York, who wrote that “Romney was, and is, right. As events in Benghazi and Cairo unfolded, the Obama administration’s first instinct was to apologize for any offense Muslims might have taken.”

The release Kristol and York are referring to came from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo while it was under threat but before violence started; the official Obama Administration statement after the assaults quoted the President saying “we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.” While Romney accused Obama of “sympathiz[ing] with those who waged the attacks” as a consequence of the embassy’s criticism of the anti-Islam film that may have played a role in instigating the violence, Romney himself condemned an anti-Islam provocation in 2010, saying “Burning the Quran is wrong on every level. It puts troops in danger, and it violates a founding principle of our republic.”

Mitt Romney’s campaign is blaming President Obama and his administration for the attacks that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya on Tuesday.

Rioters attacked the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt and the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya to protest an American-made anti-Islam YouTube video (reports are surfacing that the Libya attack was already planned and the protest was used as a cover).

Romney has received widespread criticism, from fellow Republicans and mainstream media figures, for accusing Obama of sympathizing with the attackers and has released a set of talking points for allies and surrogates to respond. Among them, the Romney teams blames the Obama administration’s foreign policy for the attacks:

– We have seen a foreign policy of weakness and decline in American influence and respect. Yesterday, we saw the consequences of this perceived weakness. [...]

– We have seen a foreign policy of weakness, indecision, and a decline in American influence and respect – and yesterday we saw the consequences.

Romney issued his attack before news broke that the violence in Libya had resulted in the deaths of the U.S. ambassador and three of his deputies. But in a press conference on today, the GOP presidential nominee stood by the statement.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this morning condemned attacks in Benghazi, Libya at the American consulate that ended up killing U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and 3 of his deputies. The mob reacted to an anti-Islam YouTube clip that also sparked violence in Cairo yesterday. The attacks should “shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world,” she said.

Clinton stressed that the attack should not be representative of the Libyan government, or the Libyan people:

CLINTON: We must be clear-eyed even in our grief. This was an attack by a small and savage group, not the people or government of Libya. Everywhere Chris and his team went in Libya, in a country scared by war and tyranny, they were hailed as friends and partners. And when the attack came yesterday, Libyans stood and fought to defend our post. Some were wounded. Some Libyans carried Chris’s body to the hospital and they helped rescue and lead other Americans to safety. Last night when I spoke with the President of Libya, he strongly condemned the violence and pledged every effort to protect our people and pursue those responsible.

The friendship between our countries borne out of shared struggle will not be another casualty of this attack. A free and stable Libya is still in America’s interest and security. And we will not turn our back on that.

Watch the clip:

Indeed, a recent Gallup poll found that “U.S. support for the Libyan revolution may have generated an almost unprecedented level of goodwill toward the U.S. In 2012, 54% of Libyans approve of U.S. leadership — among the highest approval Gallup has ever recorded in the Middle East and North Africa region, outside of Israel.”

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized the Obama administration’s condemnation of those who created an anti-Islam YouTube movie that sparked widespread violence in Egypt and Libya. Yet in 2010, Romney himself harshly condemned a highly publicized Quran burning as inflammatory and dangerous.

Pastor Terry Jones planned to burn a Quran as a means of condemning Islam, an act that resulted in the death of 15 people in Kabul during riots. Romney, echoing General David Petraeus, decried Jones’ plan as potentially endangering American lives:

Burning the Quran is wrong on every level. It puts troops in danger, and it violates a founding principle of our republic.

But today, Romney claimed that a similar statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo — “The United States Embassy in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions” — was evidence of the Obama administration’s underlying sympathy with the mob that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens in anger over a derogatory anti-Muslim. According to Romney, “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.”

The embassy’s statement was not approved by the Obama administration, whose official statement said the U.S. “rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others” but defended the filmmaker’s right to free expression and condemned violence as a response to offensive provocation.

Mitt Romney responded to violence against American officials in Libya and Egypt by accusing the Obama administration of apologizing for and sympathizing with the attackers.

On the evening of Tuesday September 11th, just hours after protesters of a YouTube video denouncing Islam stormed the United States Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and Egyptian demonstrators attacked the United States Embassy in Egypt, the Romney campaign rushed a statement to reporters accusing the Obama administration of failing to condemn the attacks and linking the protests to “Obama’s failed Middle East policies.”

The campaign’s response disregarded Romney’s self-imposed pledge not to engage in partisan mudslinging on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, though it came before news broke that four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, were killed in the violence. The Romney team was so eager to connect Obama to the unrest, however, it urged reporters to ignore its initial midnight embargo and print the criticism on Tuesday night:

MITT ROMNEY: “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.”

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Preibus chimed in on Twitter:

Obama sympathizes with attackers in Egypt.Sad and pathetic.

— Reince Priebus (@Reince) September 12, 2012

The GOP’s charge accusing Obama of apologizing for terrorism came in response to an early statement from the American Embassy in Egypt “shorty after noon” on Tuesday, before the attacks began. The statement condemned the intolerant film, but could not speak out against violence that had not yet occurred. “The United States Embassy in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions,” it said, denouncing the “unjustified breach of our embassy.”

The administration distanced itself from the Embassy, noting that its statement “was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government,” and then denounced the violence and deaths that occurred.

However, President Obama released a statement this morning condemning the attacks and rejecting the anti-Islam video. “I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens,” Obama said in a statement released on Wednesday morning. “While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.”

In 2006, the Bush administration similarly criticized cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed that sparked protests throughout Europe. “Anti-Muslim images are as unacceptable as anti-Semitic images,” which are routinely published in the Arab press, “as anti-Christian images, or any other religious belief,” said Bush administration State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.