Mitt Romney has already been nearly universally condemned for his overt attempts to politicize last evening's attacks on U.S. diplomatic compounds in Libya and Egypt, and the murder of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

The origins of this mess lie with a California-based Israeli-American businessman named Sam Bacile, who recently made a film, Innocence of Muslims, depicting the Islamic Prophet Mohammed as a dumb, gay, womanizing, child molester. "Islam is a cancer," Bacile is quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal.

When word of Bacile's movie reached the Arab world, local Muslims were not happy, which prompted the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to release a statement attempting to quell the hysteria. It read, "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims—as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions."

The White House has since disavowed the embassy's statement, saying it was never officially authorized, but it doesn't really matter because, as we know now, the riots went off anyway, and several Americans were killed. After that is when Romney misguidedly attempted to paint Obama as "sympathizing" with terrorists due to the Cairo embassy's statement, despite the fact that that statement came before any attacks happened and despite the fact that the Obama administration says it never approved said statement.

Because it is obviously the right thing to do, most pundits—even those from the GOP—have been quick to discredit Romney's claim. But in a short press conference today, the Republican candidate doubled down on his Obama criticisms, saying, "The administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our Embassy in Egypt, instead of condemning their actions. It's never too early for the United States government to condemn acts on Americans and to defend our values." And then he walked away, as you'll see in the photo above, with something that looked a lot like a smirk on his face.

[Image via AP]