WASHINGTON (MCT) — The deeply partisan nature of this year’s campaign intruded abruptly into a foreign policy crisis as Republican nominee Mitt Romney sharply criticized the Obama administration for issuing an “apology for America’s values” and the president retorted that his challenger was politicizing a tragedy.

Romney’s speed in assailing — his campaign issued its first statement Tuesday night — appeared to some to violate traditions of at least momentary unity in the face of a foreign threat. In this case, it was the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the latter of which took the lives of the American ambassador and three other Americans.