In the middle of tonight’s debate, Mitt Romney thought he had gotten the perfect opportunity to blow the contest wide open. He thought the President had lobbed him the sweetest pitch he’d ever seen. The day after the Benghazi attack, Mr. President, you called it an “act of terror”? SRSLY? We’ve been hammering you on this for 4 weeks, and now you’d like to pretend you called it terrorism the very next day? Can I linger on this any longer? Can I tell you the debate’s over now? Because it’s all over. The boys in the truck might wanna record this in slo-mo . .

And oops. Fellas, what just happened? I’ll tell you what just happened. The overheated Romneyites, Mitt Romney chief among them, had ignored the President’s statement for over a month, and now it had come back to bite them. In — damn – a nationally televised debate. Obama had said it was terrorism from the start, but in the frenzy to score cheap political points, the Romney campaign had ignored him. And now their candidate looked like a fool. Here‘s National Review hilariously dragging its sullen feet in the post-debate fact check:

. . here are his remarks, in which the president made no specific reference to that effect, at least. He didn’t offer many details on what he knew of the events, beginning with just this description:

“Yesterday, four of these extraordinary Americans were killed in an attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi.”

Wipe away the tears, Patrick. Only a few more words to go. Then you can go to bed and pretend tonight never happened:

His only mention of “terror”:

“No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America.”

That’s right. Obama’s only “mention of terror” had come when he took to the Rose Garden to address the attack in Benghazi. And that’s where and when he said, “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation . .” That would be a home run, factually speaking. But do try and save Mitt Romney’s reality-smacked gob, please.

One could take that as a reference to acts which include the tragedy in Benghazi…

. . since the Rose Garden press conference was called to address the tragedy in Benghazi. I have the mysterious transcript here:

OBAMA: “Good morning.

“Every day all across the world, American diplomats and civilians work tirelessly to advance the interests and values of our nation. Often, they are away from their families. Sometimes, they brave great danger.

“Yesterday, four of these extraordinary Americans were killed in an attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi. Among those killed was our ambassador, Chris Stevens, as well as Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith. We are still notifying the families of the others who were killed . . “

Quote. No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Unquote. Time for someone in the Romney camp to get fired.

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ADD: Thanks to CNN for pulling up a second quote.

On September 13, at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Obama vowed to bring the killers to justice. He then added, “No act of terror will dim the light of the values that we proudly shine on the rest of the world, and no act of violence will shake the resolve of the United States of America.”

Twice in two days.

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MORE: Thanks to Foreign Policy for pulling up a third quote, also on September 13th but in Golden, Colorado:

“So what I want all of you to know is that we are going to bring those who killed our fellow Americans to justice. I want people around the world to hear me: To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. It will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America,” he said.

Three times in two days.