President Obama appeared to compare volunteers working on his campaign to U.S. diplomats serving overseas at a Las Vegas campaign event Wednesday evening, according to pool reports.
In light of Tuesday’s fatal attack at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the president spoke of his visit to the State Department earlier in the day to local Nevada campaign volunteers:
"But I had a chance to go to the State Department to comfort some of the friends and co-workers of the (repeat) folks who had fallen and I reminded them that as hard as things are sometimes, as difficult as change is, that if we're resolute, if we don't give up, if we don't give in, if we don't become cynical, if we continue to be realistic about how hard change is but also keep in our hearts that sense of idealism and sense of purpose then over time good things happen."
"Change" was memorably one of the Obama campaign's political slogans during the 2008 election cycle. If the pool report is accurate, this moment marks the first report of "change" being an official or unofficial part of the American diplomatic platform.
Obama went on to distinguish the types of sacrifices troops and diplomats make from campaign volunteers, but compared them in other ways.
"The sacrifices that our troops and our diplomats make are obviously very different from the challenges that we face here domestically, but like them, you guys are Americans who sense that we can do better than we're doing," Obama said. "I'm just really proud of you."
The president chastised Republican nominee Mitt Romney earlier Wednesday for allegedly attempting to use the attacks for political gain, saying, "this wasn’t the time for politics."