Yesterday, Mitt Romney's campaign said the Obama campaign has been using the issue of foreign policy as a "shiny object" to serve as "another distraction" from what Romney feels is the most important issue in the campaign: the economy. The fact that Romney hasn't given any specifics on how he would address the economy is irrelevant; he wants Obama to stop "distracting" voters with issues of foreign policy.
A few hours later, the US embassy in Libya was attacked and 4 Americans died, including the ambassador. My heart goes out to the victims' families. This should never have happened.
In light of the sequence of events, I can't help but think back to 2008 when John McCain boldly declared "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." This was said almost exactly four years ago today, on September 15, 2008. Shortly thereafter, the economy collapsed.
Romney seems to have re-created McCain's disastrous timing with his comments on foreign policy. The "fundamentals of the economy are strong" statement has since come to be viewed as one of the firmest nails in the McCain campaign's coffin... can the same be said of the "shiny, distracting object" statement for Romney?
One can only hope.