Romney shares personal link to slain Navy SEAL

In the foreign policy speech Monday, Romney returned again and again to Benghazi.

"I want to be very clear: The blame for the murder of our people in Libya, and the attacks on our embassies in so many other countries, lies solely with those who carried them out — no one else," he said. "But it is the responsibility of our president to use America's great power to shape history — not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events," he said. Unfortunately, that is exactly where we find ourselves in the Middle East under President Obama."

His tone Tuesday in Iowa was very different.

Romney said he learned that Doherty was in another building across town when he and his colleagues found out the consulate was under attack.

"They went there. They didn't hunker down where they were in safety. They rushed there to go help," Romney said. "This is the American way. We go where there's trouble. We go where we're needed. And right now we are needed. Right now the American people need us."