Romney, Obama make their cases on '60 Minutes' (VIDEOS)

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The World

Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama both appeared on "60 Minutes" to make their cases, as Obama made his most direct rebuttal yet to Romney's criticism of his handling of the escalating situation in the Muslim world. 

"If Gov. Romney is suggesting that we should start another war, he should say so," Obama said in an interview with Steve Kroft on Sunday night, the Associated Press reported

“When it comes to our national security decisions, any pressure that I feel is simply to do what's right for the American people. And I am going to block out any noise that's out there,” Obama said, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Romney, meanwhile, put forth a confident face about his campaign, which has taken a setback in opinion polls in recent weeks. 

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"It doesn't need a turnaround," said the GOP candidate to interviewer Scott Pelley. "We've got a campaign which is tied with an incumbent president to the United States."

He added that his team was doing a "good job" and that they "know how to win," according to PBS News Hour

Romney also continued to criticize his opponent's foreign policy, attacking Obama's inability to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling it a mistake that "sends a message throughout the Middle East that somehow we distance ourselves from our friends," the AP reported. 

When asked what the biggest regret of his presidency was, Obama said that he wished he could have changed the political climate more, Politico reported

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“I’m the first one to confess that the spirit that I brought to Washington, that I wanted to see instituted, where we weren’t constantly in a political slugfest but were focused more on problem-solving that, you know, I haven’t fully accomplished that. Haven’t even come close in some cases,” the president said. 

Romney hit back at Obama in his interview, saying that Obama has been too "take-it-or-leave-it" in his approach. 

 “If you want to work together with people across the aisle, you lay out your principles and your policy, you work together with them, but you don’t hand them a complete document and say, ‘Here, take this or leave it,’” said Romney, according to Politico. “Look, leadership is not a take-it-or-leave-it thing. We’ve seen too much of that in Washington.”

Here, a clip of Obama responding to a question about the Arab Spring:

And Romney on the Middle East:

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