President Obama at his afternoon press conference. (Photo: Getty)

The ongoing scandal over former CIA Director David Petraeus' affair and the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya were two of the main topics when President Barack Obama had his first post-election White House press conference this afternoon. President Obama promised thorough investigations would be done to uncover details about the FBI investigation that unearthed the Petraeus scandal and the  circumstances surrounding the Benghazi attack. He also had high praise for Mr. Petraeus and harsh words for anyone who might attempt to block him from nominating diplomat Susan Rice as secretary of state because her role in the widely-criticized shifting explanations for the Libyan embassy attack.

President Obama first discussed the Petraeus scandal when a reporter asked whether there were any potential national security issues raised by the affair and associated email breaches.

"I have no evidence at this point, from what I've seen that class information was disclosed that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security," the president said.

In the same question, the president was asked whether he was concerned the White House was not notified about the FBI investigation involving Mr. Petraeus as soon as it began. He declined to comment on the "specifics of the investigation" and said he was confident the FBI would conduct an appropriate internal examination if necessary.

"Obviously, there's an ongoing investigation. I don't want to comment on the specifics of the investigation," said President Obama. "The FBI has their own protocol in terms of how they proceed. ... I will let them examine those protocols themselves"

Later on the president argued that, if the White House was notified of the investigation sooner, it may have raised questions about whether the administration was "interfering in a criminal investigation."

After discussing the case, the president offered some relatively kind words for Mr. Petraeus.

"General Petraeus had an extraordinary career. He served the country with great distinction. ... By his own assessment, he did not meet the standards that he felt were necessary for the director of the CIA with respect to this personal mattter,"  President Obama said. "From my perspective at least, he has provided this country an extraordinary service. We are safer because of the work David Petraeus has done. And my main hope right now is that he and his family are able to move on and that this ends up being a single sidenote on what has otherwise been an extraordinary career."

Along with the Petraeus investigation, the president faced questions about the administration's handling of the Libyan consulate attack. Shortly before his press conference, Republican senators John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Lindsey Graham had a presser of their own where they called for Watergate-style hearings about the incident. Mr. McCain has also suggested he would block the nomination of Susan Rice, the ambassador to the U.N., if, as rumored, the president nominates her to be secretary of state, because of her initial characterization of the attack as "spontaneous" rather than an act of terrorism. President Obama called any attempt to attack Ms. Rice because of the incident "outrageous."

"I'm not going to comment at this point on various nominations I'll put forward to fill out my cabinet for the second term," he said. "But let me say specifically about Susan Rice, she has done exemplary work....For them to go after the U.N. ambassador who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence she received and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous."

The president said he would be "happy to cooperate" with any hearings or investigation about the attack and encouraged critics of the administration's response to focus on him.

"If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. And I'm happy to have that discussion with them," President Obama said.

He also expressed confidence his national security team did the best they could to protect the staff at the consulate before and during the attack, which left four people dead including the ambassador to Libya.

"When they go after the UN ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me," said the president.

Robert Gibbs (Photo: Wikipedia)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- The Obama administration has been criticized for offering evolving, confusing explanations for the cause of last month's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. However, current senior Obama campaign advisor and former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs thinks his successor in the press office handled the situation well. 

Politicker spotted Mr. Gibbs walking through the press filing room at tonight's presidential debate. We asked him for his take on White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's handling of the Libya attack.

"I think the press secretary's handled it well because he's told people what we know when we knew it," Mr. Gibbs said.

We wanted to ask Mr. Gibbs more about his thoughts on the White House's public statements after the incident, but he walked behind a curtain and an aide told the reporters who were accompanying him that we weren't permitted to follow.

"Guys, you can't come back here," she said.

Rudy Giuliani speaking. (Photo: YouTube)

You can officially count former Mayor Rudy Giuliuani among President Barack Obama's critics over his controversial handling of last month's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. At a fundraiser for GOP congressional hopeful Dan Halloran earlier this week, Mr. Giuliani simply unloaded on the Obama administration's “cover-up" of the incident's terrorist roots, which he described as a "bunch of lies" based on Mr. Obama's political calculations and "fantasy world" delusions.

"This was a 'terrorist attack,'" Mr. Giuliani said. "The president has hard time saying those words. He has a hard time saying those words because he lives in a fantasy world. The fantasy world he lives in is that Islamic extremist terrorism, even if it exists, shouldn't be acknowledged. We pretend they're not at war with us; we're certainly not at war with them."

The former mayor--whose 2008 presidential campaign was largely based on his national security expertise--argued Mr. Obama's "fantasy" mindset trickled down through the State Department leading them to deny requests for additional security at the Consulate in Libya.

"If the President of the United States keeps putting his head in the sand about this, then all the people who work for the President of the United States tend to put their head in the sand," he continued. "And that's why, I believe, all these requests for additional security were not granted. Because it would give the impression that maybe Libya was not this wonderful place that President Obama would like us to think it is....It defies his narrative."

Mr. Giuliani also credited the congressional Republican majority elected in 2010 with bringing the issues of security at the diplomatic post and potential terrorist ties to the incident to light. The House Oversight for Government Reform Committee, which is chaired by Republican California Congressman Darrell Issa, is currently conducting an investigation into the attack.

"If it wasn't for the victory we had two years ago, this entire situation in Libya, which the administration wants to cover-up, the requests for more security, the denial of more security, calling it a 'spontaneous incident' where almost from the first minute it was described as an Islamist, extremist, terrorist attack by an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group, that entire-cover up would be covered up," Mr. Giuliani said. "Because there'd be no Republican Congress to hold the hearings they're going to hold tomorrow to lay out this picture."

Democrats have blasted Mr. Issa's investigation of the Libya attack as "extremely partisan."

Despite the seriousness of the topic of hand, Mr. Giuliani also got in a couple quips and some jokes. For example, he declared, "This was for President Obama, I believe, a teaching moment. Because next year, I believe, he'll be teaching."

"They just succeeded in killing an ambassador in the first time since the Carter administration," he said at another point. "If I were President of the United States, and was compared to President Carter, I'd resign."

Watch Mr. Giuliani's remarks below:

(Photo: Getty)

Earlier today, State Department officials testifying before a congressional hearing investigating the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya last month admitted they felt there was a terrorist threat in the region. While making the media rounds tonight ahead of the vice presidential debate Mitch McConnell, the leader of the U.S. Senate Republicans, said this new information creates the "suspicion" that the White House's initial attempts to tie the attack  to a video mocking the Muslim prophet Muhammad rather than terrorism may have been a dishonest and politically-motivated coverup.

"Well, we're finally getting the right story from the professionals down at the State Department who've been saying, apparently from the beginning, that it's a terrorist attack," Mr. McConnell said. "I don't know where this notion that this thing was video-inspired came from in the first place. It leaves you with the suspicion that, since the president was in the campaign, going around, reminding everybody that bin Laden was gone and that we're out of Iraq and we'd soon be out of Afghanistan, and implying that the War on Terror was over, the campaign just felt it was inconvenient that we had a terrorist attack that had killed four Americans, as I say, inconveniently within a month of the election."

Mr. McConnell went on to say he found the Obama Administration's initial response to the attacks "disturbing" and that there was "no evidence" the video played a role in the attack. He also added that he hoped Mitt Romney would raise the issue on the campaign trail.

"It's quite disturbing. I mean, there's no evidence that the video was the cause of this terrorist attack, all the evidence is that this was a terrorist attack and the professionals in the State Department felt that from the beginning," said Mr. McConnell. "So I think it was quite disturbing and it should be an issue in the campaign."

At least one family member of one of the four Americans killed in the attack has also accused the Obama administration of misleading them about the cause of the incident for political reasons. On Wednesday Sean Smith, whose son, Pat, died in the attack appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and said she feels she has been ignored and mislead by multiple high-level Obama administration officials.

"I told them please tell me what happened, just tell me what happened," Ms. Smith said. "I tell them, please, don't give me any baloney that comes through with this political stuff. I don't want political stuff, you can keep your political. Just tell me the truth--what happened? And I still don't know."

The Obama administration has also come under fire due to information that has come to light showing the State Department rejected requests for additional security at the diplomatic post in Benghazi prior to the attack.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney is going to stop telling the story of a time he met Glen Doherty, one of the two former Navy SEALs who died during the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya last month while they were providing security at the facility, in stump speeches because of Doherty's mother's wishes. The Romney campaign told Politicker they will remove the story from the candidate's speeches after Barbara Doherty gave an interview expressing her wish that Mr. Romney stop mentioning her son on the campaign trail.

"Governor Romney was inspired by the memory of meeting Glen Doherty and shared his story and that memory, but we respect the wishes of Mrs. Doherty," Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. 

We reached out to the Romney campaign after he brought up meeting Doherty during a speech in Ohio this afternoon. Mr. Romney, who has criticized the Obama administration for its handling of the incident in Libya, has referenced  their meeting at a Christmas party several years ago in multiple other speeches. This morning, Boston's WHDH TV released the interview with Ms. Doherty in which she said she didn't want her son's death politicized by Mr. Romney.

"I don't trust Romney. He shouldn't make my son's death part of his political agenda. It's wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama,” Ms. Doherty said.

Though Ms. Doherty objected to her son being mentioned in the speeches, her daughter, Kate Quigley, who was Doherty's sister, gave an interview of her own in which she said she appreciated having her brother included in Mr. Romney's speeches as well as a ceremony President Barack Obama hosted for the victims of the attacks.

"It was nice what he said. Being an American hero is bipartisan," Ms. Quigley said of Mr. Romney's remarks. "I am happy for it, and I was honored by Obama's coming home ceremony."

(Updated at 2:26 p.m. to include Ms. Quigley's comments.)

Mitt Romney. (Photo: Getty)

In multiple recent appearances, Mitt Romney has been discussing his personal tie to Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL who was killed in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya last month.He brought up the story again at a rally in Ohio this afternoon in spite of the fact the man's mother gave an interview to WHDH TV in Boston in which she expressed her wish that Mr. Romney stop discussing her son on the campaign trail.

"I don't trust Romney. He shouldn't make my son's death part of his political agenda. It's wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama,” Barbara Doherty said of Mr. Romney's speeches mentioning her son.

Mr. Romney met Mr. Doherty at a Christmas party in Southern California in either 2009 or 2010, the candidate has said he can't remember the exact year. Soon after the attack in Libya, Mr. Romney said he realized one of the ex-Navy SEALs who died while providing security at the consulate was the same man he met at the party.

"You can imagine how I felt when I found out that he was one of the two former Navy SEALs killed in Benghazi on Sept. 11," Mr. Romney said at a recent rally in Iowa. "It touched me obviously as I recognized this young man that I thought was so impressive had lost his life in his service of his fellow men and women."

In addition to today's event in Ohio and the rally in Iowa, Mr. Romney has previously brought up his connection to Mr. Doherty at campaign stops in Florida and Virginia. The story is a personal way for Mr. Romney to touch on the incident in Libya and the Obama administration has drawn criticism for their handling of the attacks from the Romney campaign and other conservatives.

Politicker reached out to the Romney campaign after today's event in Ohio to ask whether Mr. Romney was aware of Ms. Doherty's wishes prior to his speech today and if he plans to continue telling the story in light of her concerns. As of this writing, we have yet to receive a response.

Update (2:29 p.m.): The Romney campaign responded to our inquiries and said it will "respect the wishes of Mrs. Doherty" and remove any mentions of her son from future speeches. 

Former Navy SEAL Scott Taylor in the new Special Ops OPSEC ad. (Photo: YouTube)

Special Ops OPSEC, one of the anti-Obama political action committees formed by ex-Navy SEALs that have been attacking President Barack Obama for inappropriately politicizing the killing of Osama bin Laden has released a new ad slamming the White House's response to the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last month. The Obama administration has faced harsh criticism for allegedly ignoring security warnings ahead of the attacks and offering confusing, evolving explanations for the incident, which left four people dead including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and two former Navy SEALs who were working as security contractors protecting diplomatic personnel. The ad specifically targets comments the president made referring to the Benghazi attack and other recent unrest in the Middle East as "bumps in the road."

"President Obama wanted credit after our military killed Bin Laden. Highly classified secrets were leaked endangering real heroes and their families, but when terrorists kill SEALs and diplomats in Libya, this administration doesn't tell the truth about what happened and the president says it's just a bump in the road," OPSEC president and former SEAL Scott Taylor says in the ad. "There is nothing acceptable about playing politics with national security and American lives. Aren't some things more important than politics?"

According to an email sent out by Special Ops OPSEC, the ad will start airing in Virginia today. The group is seeking contributions to help put it on the air in other swing states.

"We need your help to keep it on the air expand it to other critical 2012 battleground states," Mr. Taylor wrote in the email message.

Watch the Special Ops OPSEC ad, which is entitled "Bump in the Road," below.

(Photo: YouTube)

Despite being a fellow Democrat, former Mayor Ed Koch was harshly critical of President Barack Obama's attitude towards Israel last year. Time and time again, Mr. Koch railed against Mr. Obama, notably using his clout to help elect Congressman Bob Turner win a Democratic-leaning district last summer in a campaign largely based on Mr. Obama's alleged lack of support for the country. After the election, however, Mr. Koch flipped and said Mr. Obama was indeed a friend of Israel declaring, "I’m now on board the Obama Re-election Express" and vowing to campaign for him in Florida. In light of the recent attacks on the U.S. embassy in Libya, however, Mr. Koch has returned to criticizing Mr. Obama's stance on Israel.

"President Obama on a number of occasions has publicly stated, 'I have Israel's back,'" Mr. Koch said in a statement this afternoon. "I don't know what that means in practice."

Mr. Koch added that he believes Mr. Obama's public statements to date are not sufficiently committed to Israel's security.

"I believe he should publicly state, as Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii said back in January of this year that an attack by Iran on Israel would be considered an attack on the U.S. that would elicit an immediate military response," he said.

View Mr. Koch's full press release below:

My Reaction to President Obama's Response to the Incidents in Egypt, Libya and Elsewhere

The New York Times of September 17, reported that, "[i]n Iran, the commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, took the unusual step of holding a news conference on Sunday to warn that 'nothing will remain' in Israel if it or any other nation launches attacks against his country. He said that Iran and its allies - presumably Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza - would retaliate at Israel's borders, as would Iran itself in Israel and beyond, targeting American military bases in the Persian Gulf and shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has often threatened to counter any attack, but the general's threats were unusually specific and signaled Iran's intent to turn any possible attack into a regional conflict. 'Our response to Israel is clear: I think nothing will remain of Israel,' General Jafari said, according to an account by The Associated Press. 'Given Israel's small land area and its vulnerability to a massive volume of Iran's missiles, I don't think any spot in Israel will remain safe.' General Jafari also confirmed, in what appeared to be the clearest terms so far, that some high-level advisers from his elite unit were working in Syria and Lebanon, underscoring how deeply intertwined the many conflicts in the region have become."

So now we have one of Iran's top generals joining the president of Iran in calling for the destruction of Israel. The Iranian general threatens Israel's total demise and destruction "if [Israel] or any other nation launches attacks against his country." The Iranian president's longstanding calls for Israel's destruction have always been unconditional. Israel is normally referred to by Iranian government officials as the "little Satan" and the U.S. as the "big Satan."

You can be sure that if and when Iran develops a nuclear bomb and a rocket capable of reaching the U.S., we here in the U.S. will be at risk simply because we exist. The fanatic Muslims engaged in jihad against Western civilization have as their goal the total destruction of Western civilization which they both envy and hate. Their ultimate objective is to convert the world to Islam.

There are very few Jews left in most Arab countries. In some countries, none. They were forced to flee after Israel became a state in 1948. Many Christian Arabs in Arab countries including those living under the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank, have left their homelands as a result of persecution by their Muslim countrymen. Neither Bethlehem nor Nazareth are cities with a Christian majority. The Arab Christian population of the Palestinian territories has dropped to just 2 percent. Many of those fleeing their countries have sought and found refuge in the U.S. The Coptic Christians who remain in Arab countries, approximately 10 million in Egypt, live in great fear and have suffered pogroms at the hands of their Muslim neighbors. Christians are also in danger in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The recent attacks on American embassies in Egypt and Libya - including the deaths of Chris Stevens, the American Ambassador to Libya, and three other U.S. diplomatic personnel in Libya - have been followed by anti-American demonstrations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan, Nigeria, Iraq and Iran. Why should anyone be surprised? The Arab and Muslim countries hate the U.S., even those like Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, who have recently overthrown Arab despots during the so-called "Arab Spring," with the assistance of the U.S. and other Western countries.

Those who were helped by the Western countries to overthrow their despots immediately became Islamist states threatening the U.S. In Afghanistan where we have spent billions in seeking to create a democratic government, the Afghan army and police of the government we are now supporting and defending against the Taliban are responsible for the killing of American and NATO soldiers training them. According to The New York Times of September 16, "[t]he six deaths [on Friday, September 14] brought to 51 the number of coalition service members killed this year in insider attacks. The toll has already well exceeded last year's total of 35 killed in such violence." Training the Afghan security forces is the publicly-sated reason of the U.S. as to why we are remaining until 2014. We should evacuate all of our troops from Afghanistan immediately.

We know that when the President publicly stated Egypt was not an ally, he could have said the same about Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Muslim world believes the U.S. is not willing or able to use military action against Iran. It knows from the immediate and recent sacking of our embassies in both Egypt and Libya with the security forces in both those countries refusing to protect the American embassies, that the U.S. is not prepared or willing to punish those countries. Normally in such cases, is it unreasonable to expect our Ambassadors -- those still alive -- to be recalled? Is it unreasonable to immediately cut off as much as remains of the $2 billion annual appropriation to Egypt and whatever we are providing Libya? Is it unreasonable to prohibit Americans from going to both Egypt and Libya as tourists because of the physical danger to them? Egypt's economy depends on tourism to balance its budget.

President Obama on a number of occasions has publicly stated, "I have Israel's back." I don't know what that means in practice. I believe he should publicly state, as Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii said back in January of this year that an attack by Iran on Israel would be considered an attack on the U.S. that would elicit an immediate military response.

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in February 2011, "Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General [Douglas] MacArthur so delicately put it." I agree with him, but that should not preclude our using our extraordinary airpower -- rockets, planes and drones - our Navy and our stunning Special Forces where needed.

President Barack Obama speaking in the Rose Garden this morning as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on. (Photo: Getty)

This morning, President Barack Obama delivered a statement from the White House Rose Garden on the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in a rocket attack last night. The attack occurred during a protest outside the U.S. embassy in response to a trailer for a movie that was posted online last month and paints an insulting picture of the life of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Mr. Obama vowed that, in the wake of the attacks, his administration will work to secure American diplomatic posts and identify those responsible for the four deaths.

"Today, the American people stand united in holding the families of the four Americans in our thoughts and in our prayers. The United States condemns, in the strongest terms, this outrageous and shocking attack," said Mr. Obama. "We're working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats. I've also directed my administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world. Make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people."

Protests over the film also occurred at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Mr. Obama acknowledged that America's founding principles "reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others," but he said there was no excuse for the attacks.

"There is absolutely no justification to this type of senseles violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal attacks," Mr. Obama said.

Though Mr. Obama harshly condemned the attacks, he promised it would not affect the United States' relationship with the new Libyan government that has been coming together after the civil war last year that removed dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

"This attack will not break the bonds between the United States and Libya," said Mr. Obama. "Libyan security personnel fought back against the attackers alongside Americans. Libyans helped some of our diplomats find safety and they carried Ambassador Stevens' body to the hospital."

Mr. Obama said the situation was "especially tragic" because it occurred in Benghazi, Libya's revolutionary capital. The President said Mr. Stevens "helped to save" Benghazi by building "partnerships with Libyan revolutionaries" and helping them as "they planned to build a new Libya." He also noted the attack occurred on September 11, "already a solemn day for our nation."

Mr. Obama ended his speech by urging his audience to recognize the sacrifices made by Mr. Stevens and others who have died while serving the country.

"As Americans, let us never, ever forget that our freedom is only sustained because there are people who are willing to fight for it, to stand up for it and, in some cases, lay down their lives for it," he said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a similar statement a few minutes before the President. She also stood by him as he made his remarks. In her statement, Ms. Clinton said she had communicated with Libya's interim president and was confident the ties between our countries would not be a "casualty" of the attacks.

"As long as there are those who would take innocent life in the name of God, the world will never know a true and lasting peace," Ms. Clinton said. "The job of putting an end to violent extremism and building a safe and stable world continues."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney issued a statement on the attacks last night in which he condemned the Obama administration

"I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi.  It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," said Mr. Romney.

Mr. Romney was apparently referring to a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo prior to the attack in Libya that apologized for anti-Muslim activity in the United States. The White House later disavowed that statement, but this morning, Mr. Romney said he stood by his initial criticism of Mr. Obama saying the President has "has demonstrated a lack of clarity as to a foreign policy."

The Obama campaign said they were "shocked" Mr. Romney would "launch a political attack" during "a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya."

Congresswoman Michele Bachamnn (Getty)

WASHINGTON Michele Bachmann made a speech at the American Conservative Union's annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. where she accused President Barack Obama of making a series of dangerous foreign policy "miscalculations" including failing to support Israel and not standing by ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in his quest to keep the Muslim Brotherhood at bay.

"Obama failed to stand by Mubarak and that helped fuel the revolution in Egypt and it led to a regime that was based on sharia law with 72 percent of the seats in the Lower House in Egypt now occupied by the Brotherhood and an even more radical Salafist party," Ms. Bachmann said.

Ms. Bachmann said she wanted to prevent President Obama from highlighting "foreign policy successes" in his re-election effort.

"This fall, President Obama will be pointing to his foreign policy successes in order to make the case for his successful re-election. He'll be pointing to Bin Laden, he'll be pointing to the overthrow of Qaddafi, he'll be pointing to the Arab Spring as his foreign policy success story," Ms. Bachmann said. "These are tactical successes that don't begin to compare with the mess that Barack Obama has made of the Middle East and the strategic foreign policy blunders."

Ms. Bachmann said the president's main mistake was choosing "Islamic outreach over Israel" and she cited his speech in Cairo, his handling of Israel and the withdrawal of troops from Iraq as examples of the president's missteps.

"When Barack Obama chose Islamic outreach over Israel, he changed the course of history," Ms. Bachmann said. "No president since the modern state of Israel has failed to stand by our ally Israel, only President Obama."

Ms. Bachmann had particularly harsh words for President Obama's decision to invite members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to his landmark 2o09 Cairo speech, a decision she called "absolutely shocking."

"The president spurned the President of Egypt when he took his first foreign trip to Cairo," Ms. Bachmann said. "In an absolutely shocking move, he invited the Muslim Brotherhood to hear his speech when Mubarak's policy was to keep the Brotherhood at arm's length. The Muslim Brotherhood's mission is the spread of global jihad and their leader has called for the demise, not only of the United States, but also of Israel."

Ms. Bachmann blamed this choice for helping to "fuel" the Arab Spring, which she said led to the "rise of political Islam" throughout the Arab world.

"The spread of radical Islam has not been confined to Egypt. The rise of political Islam has brought sharia law now to Tunisia and Al Qaeda to Libya, as I warned during the presidential race earlier this year," Ms. Bachmann said.

According to Ms. Bachmann these "miscalculations" have put the world "on the verge of a nuclear Iran."

"And Iran is committed to both the destruction of Israel and of the United States," Ms. Bachmann said. "And they are the epicenter of global jihad."

Ms. Bachmann equated the withdrawal of troops from Iraq with handing that country "to the Iranians" and she predicted the president will do the same thing in Afghanistan.

"We credit our brave troops for winning the war in Iraq at a very tremendous cost, but the president recently chose intentionally to lose the peace," Ms. Bachmann said. "They intend to do the same thing in Afghanistan and they will likely lose the peace in Afghanistan. It's unthinkable after a decade of effort to defeat global jhad, Obama, for the sake of his political re-election, has chosen to hand Iraq to the Iranians."

Ms. Bachmann said President Obama has done several things wrong with respect to Israel starting with his call for the country to retreat to its pre-Six Day War borders.

"Before Obama was elected, Israel could count on America's unwavering support, but since Obama's election, Israel has rarely enjoyed President Obama's support, and in May he even said that Israel should retreat to her indefensible 1967 borders," Ms. Bachmann said. "In a bad case of misplaced priorities, the president thinks that Israel building apartment buildings on her own land is worse than Iran getting a nuclear bomb."

Ms. Bachmann also criticized the president for the State Department's policy of not recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

"Obama's State Department now designates Jerusalem as an international city and, in a bizarre move, our State Department won't even acknowledge that Jerusalem belongs to Israel. Jerusalem does belong to Israel," she said.

She also slammed the president for saying America is "not a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation."

"Before obama was elected, no one had ever heard of a United States president saying to the world that the United States is not a judeo-christian nation," Ms. Bachmann said. "I am here to say we are."

Though she expects President Obama to tout his "foreign policy success story" on the campaign trail, Ms. Bachmann concluded by saying his foreign policies are precisely the reason he shouldn't be re-elected.

"The president's foreign policy does change the history of the world, which is why Barack Obama cannot have a second term as president."