Obama calls Romney 'new' to foreign policy

Around four years ago, Hillary Clinton suggested then-Democratic primary opponent Barack Obama was so nave in terms of foreign policy that he would need an “instruction manual” should he win office.

Ironically, Obama, now the president, has slammed his Republican challenger Mitt Romney as "new to foreign policy."

The president's new tactic of sending out the message that he is the tested leader while Romney is a newbie could be a risky one.

According to political pundits, while Obama may have had more foreign policy experience inan official capacitywhen he first ran compared to Romney, most presidents tend to learn on the job and with the help of experienced advisors.

As a first-term senator, Obama was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and made several foreign trips.

In 2005, he traveled to Russia and Eastern Europe to visit nuclear and biological weapons facilities. The following year, Obama visited the Middle East and to several African countries in late 2006.

However, Obama downplayed the value of that experience during his primary run. "Experience in Washington is not knowledge of the world," he said in an April 2008 interview with The New York Times. "This I know. When Sen. Clinton brags, 'I've met leaders from 80 countries,' I know what those trips are like. I've been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There's a group of children who do a native dance. You meet with the C.I.A. station chief and the embassy and they give you a briefing. ... And then, you go."

Obama instead spoke on his time living abroad, as well as a visit to Pakistan in the 1980s.