Diplomatic crisis in North Africa turns political

>>> good morning from washington . it's wednesday, september 12th , this is the daily rundown. let's get to my first reads. a day that started with a campaign pause for sole almost remembrances on 9/11 endeded with violence abroad and mud slinging here at home. somebody and mitt romney were supposed to take a 24 hour break from campaign to go honest or the victims of 9/11 and pay tribute to american troops still fighting overseas particularly in afghanistan. but the truce didn't last long as a diplomatic crisis in north africa quickly turned political. the white house has confirmed this morning that u.s. ambassador to libya chris stevens was killebenghazi. also dead with three other embassy officials. after protesters with automatic rifles, rocket row spelled grenades attacked the u.s. consulate and set it on fire in benghazi. president obama said in a statement this morning, quote, i strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in benghazi which took the lives of four americans including ambassador chris stevens . while the united states rejects efforts to deny great the religious rebeliefs of other, we must oppose kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public ser vabts. according to the white house , the president was informed by national security adviser yesterday afternoon as he started his weekly meeting with secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs . then president obama was notified last night that ambassador stevens was unaccounted for and then this morning he was notified about his death. secretary of state hillary clinton also condemned the attacks expressing, quote, proceed noubd sadness and adding all the americans weless in yesterday's attacks made the ultimate sacrifice. we condemn in vicious and violent attack that took their lives which they had committed to helping the libyan people reach for a better future. angry protesters also stormed the u.s. embassy in cairo scaling the wall, pulling down an american flag . all of this and outrage over an amateur video that denounces islam that by an american real estate developer and promoted by that pastor from florida, terry jones , remember him, the man would threatening of burning of korans triggered deadly riots two years ago. hoping to contain the fallout from the film before the violent attacks began, the american embassy in cairo released a statement tuesday that says the following. quote, the united states embassy in cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of muzlism as we condemn efforts to condemn believerses of all religions. it's a statement that was to the approved by the obama admin strarks september out by the cairo embassy on itz own. in a statement late tuesday, mitt romney criticized the white house for that statement from cairo saying, quote, it's disgraceful that the obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatics missions but to sim pa 2450iz with those who waninged the attacks. the obama campaign fired back, quote, we're shocked that at a time when the united states of america is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in libya governor romney would choose to launch a political attack. sarah palin then joined the fray paraphrasing a line often used to mock her, tweeting apparently president obama can't see egypt and libya from his house. now here's what we don't get. why the romfully c fullney campaign didn 't wait until they had all the facts, not waiting to see exactly what was going on, waiting a day to condemn. now they're in a political box because what can they do. they know that they've made a mistake. you can see by the statements they've released this morning. now they wish they had the press release back because as the events happened overnight, confirming the death of ambassador stevens, the statement looks crass and tone deaf . in another escalating diplomatic dispute, the administration is trying to ease attentions with iran . president obama called benjamin netanyahu last night after israel the president was snubbing netanyahu by not meeting with him when he comes to new york two weeks from now p earlier in the day, netanyahu had sharp words on for washington on iran responding to secretary clinton who said the international community should give sanctions more time to work instead of taking more military action.

>> those international community who refuse to put red lines before iran don't have a more right to place a red light before israel.

>> before i jump ahead to the politics of the day, very quickly to wrap this up, they had this phone call , the white house put out a read saying that there was never an invite asked for by the israelis nor was one denied. israeli officials have another view. they certainly still expected to have a meeting with the president when he was over here in new york city or possibly in washington . worth noting the lead story in the jerusalem post has the leading opposition figure in israeli politics of netanyahu asking of threat yahoo! which regime do you want changed first, the one in the united states or the one in iran . so he's dealing with sharp political problems at home, as well. jewish american voters of course are just one of the groups the obama campaign hopes former president clinton can energize and talk back into the obama camp. the former president stumped for the current president in miami saying that obama has made progress under difficult circumstances.

>> the test is not whether you think everything's hunky dory . if that were the test, the president would vote against himself. the test is whether he's taking that in the right direction and the answer is yes.

>> clinton stumps in orlando today and expect to see him in one of four states in the coming weeks. florida, ohio, new hampshire and nevada. a lot of older white working class swing voters . meanwhile paul ryan is back in wisconsin today before heading to capitol hill tomorrow for a few house votes. his first visit to washington since being tapped as romney 's running mate. ryan is on the ballot twice in wisconsin's first congressional district for vice president and re-election of his house seat. so today's day debuting tv ads for his house seat.

>> as americans , we deserve a choice, you, not washington , should decide the path we take and the decisions we make. this is our chance to restore real faith and real opportunity in america.

>> as you can see, the message almost exactly the same as what he is saying on the national campaign trail. now, while krt ticks might say ryan is hedging his bets, joe biden did the same thing in 2008 . the air time probably helps the romney campaign particularly in that district which is a district the obama campaign carried in 2008 . and also target of sustained second guessing. a growing number of republicans are concerned that romney is letting the race slip away. just listen to laura ingram .

>> if you can't beat barack obama with this record, then shut down the party.

>> rush limbaugh echoed with more.

>> if obama win, you say it's the end of the republican party . and there will be a third party that will be oriented towards conservative, rand paul thinks libertarian inch. and if obama wins, the republican party will try to maneuver things so conservatives get blamed. the only problem is right now romney 's not running a conservative campaign.

>> we haven't seen such a collective hand wringing by the conservative opinion elite since july. the advice is coming fast and furious . here's news corp ceo rupert murdoch tweeting to win romney must open to sympathetic families. stop fearing far right. the " wall street journal " criticized romney for vagueness, quote, mr. romney 's pre-existing political calculation seems to be that he can win the election without having to explain the economic moment or even his policies. weekly standard also chimed in, the as sisters that you are more comprehend tent than president obama strikes many people as merely that, an assertion. as writers are often told you need to show it, not tell it. you know, what considering all of the criticism they're getting from the right or the left, maybe now we understand why the romney campaign knee jerkily responded to this crisis overseas. so