Romney, Obama focus on US posture abroad

25 Sep 2012, 7:26 pm   -   Source: AAP
Republican nominee Mitt Romney (pic) has attacked US President Barack Obama's foreign policy. (AAP)

Republican nominee Mitt Romney (pic) has attacked US President Barack Obama's foreign policy. (AAP)

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are sparring over how best to address US challenges abroad.

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are sparring over how best to address US challenges abroad in nearly back-to-back addresses at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting.

Following deadly anti-American protests in Muslim countries over the past two weeks, Romney was to outline plans on Tuesday to rework the US foreign aid system, tying development money to requirements that countries allow US investment and remove trade barriers.

Obama also was to address top foreign leaders, CEOs and non-governmental organisations at the gathering spearheaded by former President Bill Clinton.

The event puts the two presidential contenders in front of the same audience on the same day Obama was delivering a major address to the United Nations General Assembly.

Both men were drawing contrasts in a presidential contest in which the state of the US economy has been paramount but which shifted focus this month to foreign policy after attacks in Libya killed four Americans, including the US ambassador to the North African country.

In interviews and at campaign events on Monday, Romney assailed Obama's leadership abroad, leading a chorus of Republicans in criticising the president for what they said was minimising the death of the Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Obama, in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, said recent violence in the Mideast was due to "bumps in the road" on the way to democracy.

Romney on Monday also suggested Obama was leaving American foreign policy at the mercy of events instead of working to shape global politics in America's interest.

"I can't imagine saying something like the assassination of ambassadors is a bump in the road, when you look at the entire context, the assassination, the Muslim Brotherhood president being elected in Egypt, 20,000 people killed in Syria, Iran close to becoming a nuclear nation, that these are far from being bumps in the road," Romney told ABC television.

White House press secretary Jay Carney called the accusations "desperate and offensive", an attempt by the Republican presidential candidate and his allies to gain political advantage in the latter stages of a close race that seems to be trending the president's way.

The back and forth on foreign policy occurred as Romney said he was shifting to a more energetic schedule of public campaign events, bidding to reverse recent erosion in polls of the battleground states likely to decide the election.

The US president is not chosen by popular vote but by state-by-state elections, making states that don't reliably vote Democrat or Republican important in such a tight race.

While national polls make the race exceedingly close, Obama has gained ground on Romney in many recent surveys when potential voters are asked to compare the two rivals in their ability to fix the economy.

Sluggish growth and national unemployment of 8.1 per cent make the economy by far the dominant issue in the race.

The same polls show Obama with a healthy lead over Romney when voters are asked which candidate is better equipped to handle foreign policy, and the president has not shied away from trumpeting his decision to order the secret mission by US forces that killed terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout more than a year ago.

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