Conservatives: Romney flubbed Libya

By Julian Pecquet - 10/16/12 11:20 PM ET

Conservatives on television and Twitter say their candidate flubbed what should have been an easy attack on the President Obama's handling of the terrorist attack in Libya last month during his second faceoff with President Obama on Tuesday night.

The first death of an American ambassador since 1979, the administration's shifting explanation of the events of the attack, and the revelation that requests for more security had been turned down were seen as easy ways to cut into the president's lead on national security.

Instead, Mitt Romney got into an argument over whether Obama called the attack an “act of terror” the very next day – an argument he lost on the debate stage.

“Romney had a huge opening that he missed” on Libya, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox.

Syndicated columnist Ben Shapiro, editor-at-large at Breitbart.com, said Romney “botched the Libya issue royally.”

“It is the greatest scandal of Obama presidency,” Shapiro tweeted, “and he let Obama spin it as a moment of strength.” The tweet was retweeted by Jonah Goldberg of the National Review.

Later, Shapiro said it didn't matter.

“Romney won on gas prices. He won on economy. He lost on Libya, because he was incompetent on it. Americans will vote on first two issues.”

And Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak, who managed Rep. Bill Flores's (R-Texas) campaign, tweeted “Romney must be better on Libya on Monday night. And he will be.”