Seeing that Mitt Romney’s campaign has struggled to substantively differentiate itself from President Obama’s Iran policy, it has turned to strange claims about making the military option in preventing Iran from getting a nuke more “credible.” It’s unclear what that actually means but Romney surrogate Rudy Giuliani gave shot at clearing it up this morning on CNN:

GIULIANI: He hasn’t said that he would use military force. The President keeps out two words from his vocabulary, two phrases, “I will use military force.” Like Ronald Reagan would have said. Direct. Clear.

HOST: Isn’t that the same as all options are on the table? [...]

GIULIANI: Here’s the difference, when you say all options are on the table you sound like Jimmy Carter and you keep the hostages. When you say, “I’m going to bomb you” … and if you say “I’m going to bomb you,” you look like Ronald Reagan and you release the hostages.

Watch the clip:

Giuliani’s comments probably fall under that “loose talk of war” category the president recently referred to.

The Obama administration has indicated that it takes no option off the table in its effort to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, including military force. Indeed, President Obama has said that he won’t allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. The Obama administration is aware, not only of the threat an Iranian nuclear weapon poses, but also the potential negative consequences of a military attack on Iran, such as those outlined in a new bipartisan expert report. And that, coupled with U.N., U.S. and Israeli assessments that Iran has not yet decided on whether to build a nuclear weapon, leads the administration to pursue a diplomatic solution with Iran, a track the it deems the “best and most permanent way” to solve the nuclear crisis.