US leaders react to ambassador's death

>>> 24 hours before attacking the responsibility, but it may be some source of concern for republicans who have been complaining about romney 's inability to stick to an economic message that they believe will be a decider in november. with me now, blanche lincoln and john sununu . senator, let me start with you. do you think 9 romney campaigns wish they had the statement back?

>> sure. they probably should have waited. sxw

>> do you understand why they did it in the moment? walk me through are why you being they did it in the moment.

>> news cycle politics and also the fact that it was an unfolding international event. they had been criticized somewhat for not andi iaddressing it in a specific way. that was probably blown out of proportion, but i believe that was partly a driver of the response.

>> senator lincoln, on the one hand you might want to make the romney campaign own this, at the same time, you don't want to look like you're overly politicizing an international crisis .

>> you've just said, it's a news cycle -- that's not what people want to hear. people want to know that you're focused on how are we going to get our economy back on track. and you're right, i think the obama campaign has to make sure that it's allowing the -- the attack was a disproportionate attack on the embassy. and romney 's was disproceed portion nat in return.

>> you know what's coming in the next couple days. egypt has yet to condemn. there's going to be probably a pretty strong movement in congress to yank aid if they don't start protecting u.s. citizens in cairo.

>> foreign aid is not popular anywhere, but when you come to small rural states that are enormously stricken by poverty and lack of jobs, foreign aid is not a keep reminding people --

>> but egypt is not making it easy.

>> this will be an issue. it's likely to build momentum. and you can't pull the politics away. the obama administration was moving toward approving additional military aid for egypt , givinging them loan forgiveness for farm aid and other kinds of economic assistance. and so it's all the more likely that there will be both push back and an effort to make clear that the administration certainly prior to this event had sort of a vague and uncertain approach to the existing egyptian regime.

>> and sthenator lincoln, it does seem that the arab spring has been an interesting development to follow and there is democracy taking place in a lot of these countries, but not looking like american allies. and that's been a chief criticism of romney , that did the obama administration manage gel this, how is it that we're finding if they're not enemies, they're not al lies ylegheny l lies yet.

>> foreign aid is critical to keep peace globally in whatever way that we can.lies yet.

>> foreign aid is critical to keep peace globally in whatever way that we can. but we have to elevate ourselves. you see what's going on in the political realm and i don't know, i think again, and i've said it before on your show, there's an opportunity for us to find the consensus here in this country and really elevate ourselves in a way that shows globally.

>> elevating the political debate in 55 days.

>> it will be hard to do. i think the romney campaign will get the debate back to chicks. but this is a story overseas that dominates the news cycle for three or information mower day, maybe a week.

>> thank you for bringing your perspectives. we're continuing to follow