Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul is pushing back against President Obama’s remarks at the White House today in which he urged reporters to “take a look” at Mitt Romney’s old quotes minimizing the importance of the Al Qaeda leader and criticizing then-candidate Obama’s tough talk on Pakistan.
“It’s unfortunate that President Obama would prefer to use what was a good day for all Americans as a cheap political ploy and an opportunity to distort Governor Romney’s strong policies on the war on terror,” Saul said in an e-mail. “President Obama’s feckless foreign policy has emboldened our adversaries, weakened our allies, and threatens to break faith with our military. While the Obama administration has naively stated that ‘the war on terror is over,’ Gov. Romney has always understood we need a comprehensive plan to deal with the myriad threats America faces.”
Saul was referring to an anonymous state department official, who told a National Journal reporter that “the war on terror is over” in the wake of bin Laden’s death and the Arab Spring, a quote conservative bloggers seized on last week. A White House spokesman quickly issued assurances to the reporter that “we absolutely have never said our war against al Qaida is over. We are prosecuting that war at an unprecedented pace.”
