The attacks in Benghazi and the response from the administration was a “case study of a breakdown of national security.” Sen. Lindsey Graham charged on Sunday. 
 
 The South Carolina Republican said the administration should have shut down, or “heavily fortified,” the U.S. Consulate there long before the attacks occurred and it was “inconceivable” that President Barack Obama did not understand the danger there. 
 
 “This is going to be a case study, studied for years, of a breakdown of national security at every level,” Graham said on "Fox News Sunday." “Failed presidential leadership, senior members of the Obama administration failed miserably. The Benghazi, Libya, consulate was becoming a death trap. The British left, the Red Cross Left…We should have closed that consulate long before Sept. 11, and I put that on the president of the United States.” 
 
 Read more about: Lindsey Graham, Fox News Sunday, Libya ||||| Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday the Iranian government was trying to take advantage of “our election cycle.” 
 
 The New York Times reported over the weekend that the U.S and Iran had agreed to nuclear talks, but the White House has denied it. 
 
 “The Iranians are trying to take advantage of our election cycle to continue to talk,” Graham said on "Fox News Sunday." “As we talk with the Iranians whether it’s bilaterally or unilaterally, they continue to enrich and the Vice President and the President have said we will do nothing with out coordinating with Israel.” 
 
 Host Chris Wallace asked the senator what he made of the report coming out two weeks before the Nov. 6 elections. 
 
 “I think it’s pretty obvious they are trying to continue a dialogue using our election cycle in a pretty clever way,” he said. 
 
 Read more about: Lindsey Graham, Iran, Fox News Sunday ||||| Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Sunday predicted that liberals will make up all kinds of silly arguments against Mitt Romney until Election Day and said the anger over his talking about "binders full of women" is one of them. 
 
 "This is silly outrage, it’s not even real outrage," Rubio said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "He was discussing a process that they went through to identify qualified women for important positions in his administration." 
 
 Romney made the awkward comment during the last presidential debate when he was explaining his record of appointing women to Cabinet posts when he was governor of Massachusetts. He said that he perused "binders full of women" to find female candidates. Rubio said Romney had appointed a slew of women to his gubernatorial Cabinet and would also do so if elected president. 
 
 "He stands by his record," Rubio said. 
 
 Read more about: Mitt Romney, Women, Marco Rubio ||||| Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter and Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden sparred on Sunday over the President Barack Obama's charge that the Republican presidential challenger suffered from “Romnesia” 
 
 “The very fact that the president of the United States has to utter a term like that just is a glaring example of how small the campaign has been,” Madden told CBS's ‘Face the Nation’ host Bob Schieffer. “The Obama campaign has not been one about the future…Instead, they’ve reduced themselves to very small attacks like ‘Romnesia’…along with this talk about binders, this talk about Big Bird, I mean all of it is really indicative of a candidate who doesn’t have a vision for the future.” 
 
 The president Obama said last week that Mitt Romney was suffering from “Romnesia,” and painted him as a flip-flopper who could not remember conservative policy positions he’s taken in the past. 
 
 Cutter defended the campaign’s use of "binders of women' and Big Bird, because that was the language Romney used himself. 
 
 “We are not the ones that brought up Big Bird. Big Bird is important because that’s the only thing Mitt Romney could point to as to how he’s going to reduce the deficit,” she said. “Deficits are a big issues in this campaign and that’s the only thing you can point to…The president has a detailed plan on the table as to how to reduce these deficits.” 
 
 “Romnesia is a playful term of what Mitt Romney is doing in the final days of this race,” Cutter added. “He’s run as the ideal tea party candidate, severely conservative…and in the last two weeks of the campaign he’s running to the middle.” 
 
 Madden accused the Obama campaign of being petty. 
 
 "I don't think the message to voters right now ought to be playing Scrabble with your opponent's name when you have 23 million people struggling to find work," he said. 
 
 Read more about: Face The Nation, Stephanie Cutter, Kevin Madden, Big Bird ||||| Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday had some choice words for President Barack Obama, who said in a debate last week that he finds it "offensive" that Republicans are questioning his and his administration's veracity on Libya. 
 
 The Georgia Republican, who ran unsuccessfully for president, referred to the Iranian hostage crisis, which lasted 444 days when Ronald Reagan was seeking to unseat President Jimmy Carter in 1980. 
 
 “Should Ronald Reagan not have talked about it for 444 days?" Gingrich said on CNN's "State of the Union." "The fact is, we're in the middle of a mess in the Middle East, the mess keeps evolving, there continue to be incidents." 
 
 He noted that the Obama administration failed to adequately protect U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others who were killed in Benghazi, despite requests for more security at the U.S. Consulate there. He said the Obama administration must answer for its failings. 
 
 "If that offends the president, then that’s his problem and he ought to get over it," Gingrich said. 
 
 Read more about: Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, Libya ||||| Gallup Editor in Chief Frank Newport said on Sunday the polling company’s methodology is “extremely solid.” 
 
 Their most recent seven-day tracking poll showed Mitt Romney leading Barack Obama 51 percent to 45 percent among likely voters, when many other polls show the race to be dead even. 
 
 Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Newport was asked by host Chris Wallace what he made of the criticism from the Obama campaign that Gallup’s polling was “way out of line.” 
 
 “It’s not unusual, going back to Dr. George Gallup who founded our company…He found heated commentary from either side on polls, and I’ve certainly found it in the six election cycles going back to 1992,” Newport said. “People come at you from either side if they don't like the results.” 
 
 “Our methodology is extremely solid. We’re very open about how we do it,” he added. “We’re doing great but it’s not unusual for people to bite back at you who don’t your findings.” 
 
 Newport also said that Gallup has never weighted their results by party affiliation. 
 
 “We do not weight by party at all. We never have and we don’t now," he said. "We think party identification is an attitudinal variable that fluctuates just like who are you going to vote for." 
 
 Read more about: Polls, Gallup Poll, Frank Newport ||||| Sen. Dick Durbin (D.-Ill) on Sunday joined the chorus of Democrats criticizing House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for releasing documents related to the attacks in Libya on the committee’s website. 
 
 Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," the Senate majority whip said the administration was continuing to “engage in a comprehensive investigation of what actually occurred” on Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and Republicans are rushing to politicize the event. 
 
 On Friday, Issa posted 166 pages of State Department communications related to the attack on his website, without redacted the names of several Libyans who are working with the U.S. 
 
 “Lets gather the evidence, let’s make sure we understand exactly what did occur. But jumping to conclusions, I mean Darrell Issa does a document dump on his website with sensitive information about those in Libya who are helping keep America safe, I mean it shows the lengths many will go to politicize this tragic situation," Durbin said. 
 
 Read more about: Dick Durbin, Darrell Issa, Libya ||||| Top Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod, asked about an NBC/WSJ poll showing President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney tied 47-47 nationally, turned his frustration on the pollster Sunday. 
 
 "You guys also issued polls in the last week that showed us with an 8-point lead in Iowa, I think we had a lead in Ohio, you’ve showed us having a lead in Florida. I don’t know how to square all the polling that NBC is releasing," Axelrod said on NBC's "Meet the Press." 
 
 "I do think that this is going to be a very close race, and we've said that consistently," he said. "We feel good about where we are. We feel we’re even or ahead in these battleground states." 
 
 Axelrod said early voting from the battleground states is a better barometer right now. 
 
 "It’s very robust, and it's very favorable to us," he said. "And we think that’s a better indicator than these public polls which are frankly all over the map." 
 
 The WSJ/NBC poll released Sunday found Romney pulling even with the president with likely voters nationally for the first time this year. Obama had led by 3 points in late September and by 5 points earlier in the month. 
 
 Read more about: David Axelrod, Polls
– Team Romney came out of the gate swinging at President Obama's "Romnesia" jab, his handling of Libya, and the whole "binders full of women" flap, with surrogate Marco Rubio blasting away at all three. Addressing Romnesia, Rubio said, "that fires up his base," but for Americans "trying to make up their minds who to vote for, what they're wondering is, 'Well, that’s very cute, Mr. President,' but what are you going to do for the future?" He dismissed the binders outrage as "silly outrage, it's not even real outrage." Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden piled on, saying, "I don't think the message to voters right now ought to be playing Scrabble with your opponent's name" and that the Obama campaign, for lack of vision, has reduced itself "to very small attacks like ‘Romnesia’, along with this talk about binders, this talk about Big Bird." Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter defended talk of Big Bird as important "because that’s the only thing Mitt Romney could point to as to how he’s going to reduce the deficit." A look around your Sunday dial, as per Politico: David Axelrod on NBC's latest poll: "You guys also issued polls in the last week that showed us with an 8-point lead in Iowa, I think we had a lead in Ohio, you’ve showed us having a lead in Florida. I don’t know how to square all the polling that NBC is releasing." Lindsay Graham on Iran talks: "As we talk with the Iranians, whether it’s bilaterally or unilaterally, they continue to enrich, and the vice president and the president have said we will do nothing without coordinating with Israel. I think it’s pretty obvious they are trying to continue a dialogue using our election cycle in a pretty clever way." Gallup editor Frank Newport on his methodology: “People come at you from either side if they don't like the results. Our methodology is extremely solid. We’re very open about how we do it." Graham on Libya: "The Benghazi consulate was becoming a death trap. The British left, the Red Cross left. We should have closed that consulate long before Sept. 11, and I put that on the president of the United States.” Dick Durbin on GOP and Libya: "Darrell Issa does a document dump with sensitive information about those in Libya who are helping keep America safe. It shows the lengths many will go to politicize this tragic situation." Newt Gingrich on Libya: “Should Ronald Reagan not have talked about (the Iran hostage crisis) for 444 days? The fact is, we're in the middle of a mess in the Middle East, the mess keeps evolving, there continue to be incidents. If that offends the president, then that’s his problem and he ought to get over it."