Obama team in panic mode over foreign policy spat with Romney

Guardian:

The first serious exchange of the looming White House election began on Wednesday when Obama's military and foreign affairs advisers called out their counterparts in Mitt Romney's campaign team, demanding detailed answers to issues ranging from Iran to Russia.

It is an unusual strategy for Obama advisers, and specialists associated with the administration, to write en masse in such a way: an indication of the intensity with which the November election will be fought.

The Obama foreign affairs advisers sent a lengthy letter to Foreign Policy magazine saying they wanted to put "the record straight" about the president's foreign policy record. They added that they wanted to know how Romney would diverge from Obama in his approach to Iran, Israel, military spending, Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan and Russia.

They concluded: "We look forward to your responses on these specific issues."

The letter is signed by 18 advisers, including Michèle Flournoy, who said in December she planned to quit in February as under-secretary for defence and continue as an informal adviser to Obama, and retired general Wesley Clark.

They were responding to a letter by Romney's advisers to the National Review the previous day that criticised at length Obama's foreign and military record.

Although the Republican primary race has still to formally end, the White House and Romney are behaving as if it has concluded. The exchanges offer a taste of what to expect from now through to November.

The White House response suits Romney, allowing him to present himself as the challenger to Obama, with Rick Santorum – his main rival – sidelined.

The foreign policy spat was prompted by Obama's unguarded comments on Monday at a meeting with the Russian president Dmitri Medvedev in which the US president stated he could be more flexible on the awkward issue of European missile defence, which Russia opposes, once the election is over.

In their letter, Romney's team challenged the Obama administration to say what else the president might be prepared to be flexible on.

... 

The response from the Obama team does not strike me as one of a confident candidate.  It is almost like interrogatories in a legal dispute.  I suspect that Romney will  say he will provide his positions on issues as he sees fit in the coming weeks, and the more important question is what kind of secret deals is Obama attempting to cut.

It looks like Romney's response to the Obama Russian screw up has really stung Obama's campaign.