Romney presses foreign policy criticism anew; arrives in Colorado

DENVER - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has arrived in Colorado for his first debate with President Barack Obama which he is counting on to set him on a path to winning the presidency at a time when polls show him trailing the incumbent.

Romney spent more than eight days in September holding mock debates, poring over policy briefing books and sparring with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who stood in for Obama. Romney planned another day of preparation Tuesday at his hotel on the outskirts of Denver, where most of his top advisers and at least a dozen more junior aides milled about in the lobby Monday night.

The had just come from a Romney rally, held with thousands of supporters packing a hangar at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, where Romney tried to enunciate a clearer message than the varying pitches he's made to voters in recent weeks.

Though his campaign once talked about nothing but the economy, all the time, he's recently diverged into subjects including wealth distribution, Medicare health insurance for the elderly and foreign policy as he has looked to seize any opportunity to gain ground on the incumbent president.

Romney also brought up immigration in an interview published Tuesday by the Denver Post, saying he would honour temporary work permits for young illegal immigrants who were allowed to stay in the U.S. because of an executive order signed this summer by Obama.

Obama retreated to a desert resort in Nevada for three days of intensive debate preparation for Wednesday night. He was joined by a cadre of top advisers, who are focused on helping Obama trim his often-lengthy explanations to fit the debate format. Equally important is coaching Obama to look calm and presidential during an expected onslaught of criticism from Romney.

This year's first debate will deal with domestic policies. But in the run up to the debate, Romney was trying to prove his own readiness to be commander in chief and force Obama to answer for turmoil in places like Libya, where terrorists killed the U.S. ambassador on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"For the last four years we've had a foreign policy led by a president who believes that the strength of his personality is going to get people to do the right things. Well, we've seen fires burning in U.S. embassies around the world," Romney told voters in Colorado on Monday night, echoing a column he published in the Wall Street Journal earlier in the day.

Romney advisers argue that the stepped-up foreign policy criticism dovetails with a key piece of his central argument: Obama is in over his head, and the country will be worse off if he gets a second term.

Foreign policy is the latest in a series of political openings that Romney has tried to exploit in recent weeks, as he has fallen behind the president in polls both in key battleground state. National surveys show the president ahead in a tight contest. In recent weeks, Romney also has castigated Obama on the coal industry, defence cuts, wealth redistribution and the president's comment that it's not possible to change Washington from the inside.

Romney's intense focus on foreign policy is intended to undercut what the Obama campaign has seen as the president's ironclad international affairs credentials — and send a message to voters that they can trust the Republican on foreign policy despite limited experience. To that end, Romney's advisers said he's planning a major foreign policy speech, to be delivered some time after Wednesday's debate.

Yet, there's a disconnect between what Romney and his team are talking about nationally and what he is running on in the states, where his TV advertising is largely focused on the economy and jobs — voters' No. 1 issue — ahead of Wednesday's presidential debate. All that's leaving Romney open to criticism that his campaign is searching for a winning pitch just one month before the election and with voting under way in many states.

Romney running mate Paul Ryan piled on, telling radio host Laura Ingraham that Obama's administration hasn't given the public the full story on the circumstances that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi.

"It's really indicative of a broader failure of this administration's foreign policy and the crisis that is taking place across the Middle East," Ryan said. "It is clear the administration's policy unravelled."

The Obama campaign reacted dismissively, noting that Osama bin Laden is dead and arguing that the Obama administration has taken a hard line on Iran to dissuade it from creating a nuclear weapon. The Obama campaign called Romney's foreign policy stances "incoherent."

"There is no op-ed or no speech which we've heard he may or may not give at some point that is going to change the view of the American people that he has been reckless, erratic and irresponsible on foreign policy issues every time he has had an opportunity to speak to them," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Henderson, Nevada, where Obama is preparing for the debate.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Romney's op-ed "contains no specifics or an alternative," adding that most of the positions Romney was advocating "are no different from what the president is actually doing."

One possible exception is Iran, Carney said, where Romney appears to oppose U.S. policy of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

"The alternative is war," Carney said. "As the president has said, if Gov. Romney and other critics are advocating that position (war against Iran), they ought to say so clearly."

Aside from the opinion piece, however, Romney's campaign hasn't put serious money behind the foreign policy line of criticism in its campaign ads in key states.

Romney's campaign had spent much of the year focusing its argument against Obama's handling of the economy.

Then came Sept. 11, and as unrest flared in the Middle East, Romney issued a late-night statement assailing Obama before it was clear that Stevens and three other Americans had been killed in the terrorist attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The timing of Romney's initial response prompted heartburn within the Republican party. Yet, Romney pressed ahead with his criticism that Obama was a weak leader whose posture abroad was hurting U.S. interests, and congressional Republicans have piled on about the administration's changing statements on the Libya attack.

Romney campaign aides said internal polls showed the criticism of Obama's foreign policy resonating with voters in the days after Stevens' death. But any traction Romney was getting on that front was stunted when a video surfaced of Romney telling donors that 47 per cent of Americans believe they are victims entitled to government assistance. Obama has highlighted that comment repeatedly in TV ads and at campaign rallies, building on his post-convention momentum.