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MR. SCHIEFFER: What if—what if the prime minister of Israel called you on the phone and said: Our bombers are on the way. We're going to bomb Iran. What do you say?
MR. ROMNEY: Bob, let's not go into hypotheticals of that nature. Our relationship with Israel, my relationship with the prime minister of Israel is such that we would not get a call saying our bombers are on the way or their fighters are on the way. This is the kind of thing that would have been discussed and thoroughly evaluated well before that kind of action
MR. SCHIEFFER: So you're saying just what—
MR. ROMNEY: I'm—that's—that's—
MR. SCHIEFFER: OK. But let's see what—(inaudible)—
MR. ROMNEY: Yes, but let me—let me—let me come back—let's come back—let's come back and go back to what the president was speaking about, which is what's happening in the world and—and—and the president's statement that things are going so well.
Look, I—I look at what's happening around the world and I see Iran four years closer to a bomb. I see the Middle East with a rising tide of violence, chaos, tumult. I see jihadists continuing to spread. Whether they're rising or just about the same level hard to—hard to precisely measure, but it's clear they're there. They're very, very strong.
I see Syria with 30,000 civilians dead, Assad still in power. I see our trade deficit with China larger than it's—growing larger every year as a matter of fact. I look around the world and I don't feel that—you see North Korea continuing to export their nuclear technology.
Russia's said they're not going to follow Nunn-Lugar anymore; they're (back ?) away from their nuclear proliferation treaty that we had with them. I look around the world, I don't see our influence growing around the world. I see our influence receding, in part because of the failure of the president to deal with our economic challenges at home, in part because of our withdrawal from our commitment to our military and the way I think it ought to be, in part because of the—the—the turmoil with Israel. I mean, the president received a letter from 38 Democrat senators saying the tensions with Israel were a real problem.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: No.
MR. ROMNEY: They asked him, please repair the tension—Democrat senators—please repair the damage in his—in his own party.
MR. SCHIEFFER: All right.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Governor, the problem is, is that on a whole range of issues, whether it's the Middle East, whether it's Afghanistan, whether it's Iraq, whether it's now Iran, you've been all over the map. I mean, I'm pleased that you now are endorsing our policy of applying diplomatic pressure and potentially having bilateral discussions with the Iranians to end their nuclear program. But just a few years ago you said that's something you'd never do, in the same way that you initially opposed a time table in Afghanistan, now you're for it, although it depends; in the same way that you say you would have ended the war in Iraq, but recently gave a speech saying that we should have 20,000 more folks in there; the same way that you said that it was mission creep to go after Gadhafi.
When it comes to going after Osama bin Laden, you said, well, any president would make that call. But when you were a candidate in 2008—as I was—and I said, if I got bin Laden in our sights, I would take that shot, you said we shouldn't move heaven and earth to get one man, and you said we should ask Pakistan for permission.
