Libya attacks made political: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spar (+video)

Obama referred to the violent developments but quickly moved on to domestic matters while speaking at a rally Wednesday night in Las Vegas. After declaring that those who died had risked their lives "to help one of the world's youngest democracies get on its feet," the president said he had a message for the rest of the world: "No act of terror will dim the light of the values that we proudly shine on the rest of the world, and no act of violence will shake the resolve of the United States of America."

Obama moved on to a standard campaign speech, exhorting the crowd of about 8,000 people at the Cashman Center convention hall to elect him to a second term. Many struggled to understand him because of bad acoustics.

The events in Cairo and Libya unfolded with less than eight weeks remaining in the race for the White House, a campaign that has been close for months and appears likely to be settled in fewer than 10 battleground states.

The state of the economy has been the top issue by far from the beginning of the race, and recent surveys suggest Romney holds a narrowing advantage over the president when it comes to plans for reducing the nation's unemployment rate of 8.1 percent.

The situation has long been different on foreign policy. Asked in a Washington Post-ABC News poll last week which candidate was better suited to handle international affairs, registered voters picked Obama by a margin of 51 percent to 38 percent.

The Republican challenger has worked to whittle away at that deficit, and he made a heavily publicized overseas trip early this summer as part of his effort. He drew mixed reviews at best— reproached by British officials, for example, when he appeared to question preparations for the Olympic Games in London.

Nor has Obama ceded any territory. Speeches and video presentations at last week's Democratic National Convention were heavily stocked with references to the daring raid the president ordered more than a year ago that resulted in the death of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Romney, on Wednesday, defended his decision to issue his criticism Tuesday night, at a time it was not yet known that Stevens had been killed. Asked if he would have done so had he been aware of the deaths, he said, "I'm not going to take hypotheticals about what would have been known and so forth."

Gordon Johndroe, a national security aide during George W., Bush's presidency, said Romney's reaction as a candidate was quicker than he would be able to make if he were president.

"Events happen quickly but the information at first is very vague and uncertain. You don't know who has done the attack, how many people, who was attacked, were people just injured or killed. It takes a while for information to come through, and you have to be very careful and cautious when responding."

While Obama initially chose not to respond to Romney, he shed his reluctance later in the day and compared Romney's reaction unfavorably to the way many other Republicans responded.

"And so I think if you look at how most Republicans have reacted, most elected officials, they reacted responsibly," Obama said. "Waiting to find out the facts before they talked, making sure that our No. 1 priority is the safety, the security of American personnel. It appears that Gov. Romney didn't have his facts right."

Top Republican leaders in Congress did not come to Romney's defense as they — like the GOP challenger and the president — mourned the deaths of the fallen diplomats.

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