The U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three embassy personnel are dead...

and Mitt Romney is making political hay of the issue. 

Was the President wrong to apologize?  I think that in the wake of an incident like this, you don't want to fan the flames of hatred by screaming about "free speech" and how Americans are free to say what they will and the rest of the world's sensibilities be damned.

But I also think you have to show strength and quiet resolve, and you can be too flexible and too accomodating when you try to placate the angry without making them more so.

It's a fine line and a tough place to balance priorities.  Clearly this wasn't the Obama administration's finest moment, but it wasn't the failure that Romney is trying to paint it as either.

More importantly, what is the lesson to be learned?  That while we have the freedom of speech to make films like the one that offended so many Muslims that they undertook acts of violence against our nation, rather than the individual responsible for the message, we must recognize that speech has consequence??  I think that's the real message and that people like those who made this film must recognize those consequences exist and that they share blame for these deaths.

Just as I can't go into a crowded theater and shout "Fire" at the top of my lungs, making films or other art works that were designed to enrage is freedom of expression, but it cannot be done without consequence.  The artist who painted "Tastes like Hate" on the side of that Chick-Fil-A in Torrance did so with full acknowledgement that his actions might well be accompanied by a heavy price.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the four who were killed in Libya.  Freedom is never completely free.  Someone always pays a price, somewhere.