BBC's Katty Kay Laments Mideast Crisis Making it Harder for Obama to Attack Romney's 'Disastrous Response'

On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, BBC America Washington correspondent Katty Kay dismissed the electoral impact of the Obama administration's mishandling of the crisis in the Middle East: "I'm not sure that who said what, when, and when the intelligence came out...I'm not sure that that's going to be a huge issue for voters in the course of this election." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

However, she did bemoan the fact that ongoing chaos in the region may blunt Obama campaign attacks against Mitt Romney: "It does mean that it's harder for the White House to keep focusing on what was a pretty disastrous response from the Romney campaign initially. So it kind of draws a line under that." And what of the "pretty disastrous response" by the President of the United States?

Kay's sentiment was certainly in line with NBC special correspondent Tom Brokaw, who on Friday's Today argued "Romney's missteps really have given the President more camouflage than he would have expected" on the crisis.

Here is a transcript of Kay's September 30 comments:

11:23AM ET
 
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DAVID GREGORY: Katty Kay, a lot of questions now in this debate, in this campaign about this administration's handling of what is still in parts, in places, a chaotic Middle East transitioning.

KATTY KAY: Yes. Certainly, I think on – on the issue of Libya, actually, I'm not sure that who said what, when, and when the intelligence came out, as, you know, David Plouffe was – kept talking about the intelligence community and what they knew about Libya, I'm not sure that that's going to be a huge issue for voters in the course of this election. It feels to me like, you know, a short-term issue in terms of American voters. It does mean that it's harder for the White House to keep focusing on what was a pretty disastrous response from the Romney campaign initially. So it kind of draws a line under that. But in terms of American leadership more broadly in the Middle East, I mean, the – the situation that – that Richard [Engel] pointed out was – was very clear.  There's a – a lot of confusion, and it's not easy for American leadership.

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