Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani defended Mitt Romney’s criticisms of President Obama’s foreign policy, saying the administration’s planned “reset” with the Middle East had failed.
“The reality is the president got elected to reset our relationship in the Middle East. We might as well not have had the reset,” said the prominent Romney surrogate on CNN’s State of the Union.
“I mean, look at the American flag being burned, unrest in 20 countries, a front page article in The New York Times today saying they anticipate numerous additional demonstrations over the next four or five months,” he continued. “America is no more popular in the Middle East than it was four years ago.”
Giuliani said that while the economy was the central issue of the 2012 election, the president would also have to defend his foreign policy to voters.
“This was going to be an election about the economy. It's now becoming an election that's looking an awful lot like 1980 with Jimmy Carter-style president in the White House,” he said.
GOP nominee Romney has focused on last week’s violent protests at U.S. embassies throughout the Muslim world, slamming the president’s initial response to the demonstrations and arguing that the administration has mishandled the Arab Spring, alienating American allies.
On Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice defended the administration’s record. Rice dismissed Romney’s criticisms as a “vacuous charge of weakness.”
In a dig at the GOP candidate’s comments, Rice said that in times of crisis the American people “look to our leadership to be unified in responses.”
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