Please, Mr. President, use the above line in the foreign policy debate and it is what people and the media will be talking about the next day. And please handle Romney on this like I suggest below.
Most people know that, in 2007 and 2008, Romney said he wouldn't "move heaven and earth" to get Bin Laden. But less well-known is that Romney also said (like McCain did) that, even if intelligence reports confirmed that Bin Laden's location could be pinpointed inside Pakistan, Romney as President would not send Special Forces into Pakistan to kill Bin Laden without that country's permission. In fact, I believe that Romney (like McCain) said that it would be a diplomatic disaster with regard to our relationship with Pakistan.
So after the daring mission was successful and Bin Laden was dead, it was a total lie for Romney to have said that any President, including a President Romney, would have made the call that Obama made and sent our Special Forces into Pakistan to kill Bin Laden, since we hadn't received permissions from the Pakistani government.
The beauty of the way I put it in the headline is that it ties the term "outsourcing," which is already tied to Romney and which everyone hates on a deep visceral level, to our national security and killing Bin Laden. It also makes Romney look foolish and weak on national defense.
It also puts us on offense and puts Romney on the defensive.
Finally, it has the advantage of being true.
And PLEASE, Mr. President, don't quote Romney and say that he said he wouldn't "move heaven and earth" to get Bin Laden -- don't you use those words !!! Just paraphrase Romney by saying that he said, just like Bush said, that getting Bin Laden wasn't important to him (don't even say it wasn't "particularly important" to Romney, just that it wasn't "important" to him). Let Romney try to defend himself by saying that he said only that he "wouldn't move heaven and earth" to get Bin Laden, not that it wasn't important to him. He will have a hard time making that stick, and most people will think he is being weak and evasive, just like the weasel he is.
So paraphrase him to your best advantage; let Romney try to parse his own words and wriggle out of his own positions. If he comes back with the "heaven and earth" line, roll your eyes and say something like "I think we all know what that means. That's what George W. Bush said when he decided to give up going after Bin Laden. I'm sure Bin Laden slept a lot better after he heard you say that."
Mr. President, your job is to win the debate, not to bend over backwards trying to be literal or "fair," whatever that means - and often paraphrasing is more accurate and fair than quoting. For the sake of the country, destroy Romney with the truth, and give him no quarter, by making the points that:
1. Romney wanted to Outsource Our National Security and the Killing of Bin Laden to Pakistan, and
2. Romney didn't think it was important to kill Bin Laden and wouldn't have sent our Special Forces into Pakistan to do it without Pakistan's approval.
Paraphrase him and let him try to wriggle out of his positions.
Sorry for all the bolding, but I thought it was important.