Obama: 'Peace is hard, progress can be reversed'

>>> the president characterized as bumps in the road, the developments in the middle east . we've just had an ambassador as sass nated. egypt elected a muslim brotherhood or person as president. iran is on the cusp of having nuclear capability. we have tu mult in jar and pakistan. this think this is a time for american leadership.

>> that was governor romney speaking to peter alexander this hour criticizing the president's leadership record abroad and what a difference a year makes.

>> something's happening in our world. the way things have been is not the way that they will be. the humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pride open. but let us remember, peace is hard. peace is hard. progress can be reversed.

>> when president obama addressed the u.n. general assembly last year the world was feeling the euphoria of the arab spring. the caveat the president noted about peace is proving true. as he prepares to peek before the u.n. tomorrow he finds himself under pressure regarding the september 11th attack on the consulate in benghazi, libya . calling it the result of protests the administration is now labeling it an act of terrorism. yesterday obama campaign senior adviser robert gibbs pushed back against accusations the administration is not telling the whole truth.

>> no one intentionally or unintentionally misled anybody involved in this. absolutely not.

>> the administration still insists that there is no evidence that the attack was preplanned but republicans believe the plot to be far more sinister and not driven by protests in response to a controversial anti-muslim video.

>> i have seen no information that shows that there was a protest going on as you have seen around any other embassy at the time. it was clearly designed to be an attack.

>> sam, the bumps in the road comment taken out of context. wasn't referring to the assassination of chris it stevens as a bump in the road. i would argue mitt romney has not used this opportunity to sell himself well in terms of foreign policy but the white house and the position it finds itself, doubling back from comments made earlier about this being just the result of, you know, widespread reactionary protests and not a preplanned attack by al qaeda .

>> listen, i mean if we are to believe robert gibbs that they are just learning information now about what happened, then that raises questions about what kind of security -- security -- what kind of intelligence we had. why didn't we know that this was going to happen beforehand. i think these are totally legitimate questions. i feel like we should have -- we should ask the questions why wasn't there better security at the consulate, better intelligence than this happening and ask the broader questions what are our overall objections in libya and egypt . we can quibbliist with whether these are bumps in the road and what he meant by that. do we want to be catering these countries to democracy. do we have an obligation to make sure they don't elect someone from the muslim brotherhood . what imprint do we want to have and how do we go about doing it.

>> "the new york times" quoting an official, it's a catastrophic intelligence loss, talking about pulling our cias pulling out. mohamed morsi, very difficult relationship with egypt right now. mohamed morsi says egypt will not be hostile to the u.s. but not as accommodating as hose hosni mubarak was. what does the president need to say in terms of, you know -- he's speaking to a global audience at the u.n. general assembly . what does he need to say to your mind?

>> you know, i think a little bit of honesty here. i think that to admit that there have been some difficulties, i mean, i agree with that statement, peace is hard and i think that the president should acknowledge that process has been difficult and that's why you've seen some of the -- some of these things kind of emerge in the last few weeks with respect to libya and so forth. you can only kill osama bin laden so many times. and you saw this morning, david axelrod sort of pivoting back to that point well, got osama bin laden . okay. we got that. but now there's a broader question that sam touched on about what does stability in the middle east look like in this region when you look at all these bad actors which mitt romney i think correctly pointed out, how do you deal with this as a united states and with your partners in the region and globally. i think peace becomes even more difficult when you consider all the interests whether it's china, whether it's the soviets or russia, i'm old school, you know, what's old is new, and i think that those are kind of the new realities here that the next president will have to deal with.

>> and it's certainly a time of great shift. we will see when the president addresses unga tomorrow, i'm usinged shorthand. coming up tea party star marco rubio uses a flight day tlai to rail against american airlines . he also took the opportunity to voice concerns about his executive platinum status . we will discuss his sky priority problems next in what