Because of his reaction to the crisis in the Middle East, Bill Maher said Friday, “I think this is the week Mitt Romney lost the election.”

Romney’s much-derided remarks falsely criticizing the Obama administration made the GOP presidential candidate look “small,” Maher said, in much the same way Rep. John McCain (R-AZ) did during the 2008 election, when he suspended his campaign to interject himself into negotiations to help the U.S. through its financial woes.

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“Obama just looked cool and smart,” Maher recalled. “And, again, Obama just looks cooler and smarter, ’cause he is.”

One of Maher’s panelists, Republican strategist John Feehery, suggested that “things are just getting started” in this election cycle, since there haven’t been any debates between Romney and President Barack Obama yet, and Obama has yet to poll above 40 percent with voters in “key states,” though he did not mention which ones.

But when Feehery described this week’s outbreak of violence in the Middle East, including the killing of the U.S. envoy to Libya as “all hell breaking loose,” MSNBC host Chris Hayes interjected.

“All hell breaking loose in the Middle East are 4,800 dead Americans in Iraq, and 500,000 Iraqi civilians dead,” Hayes responded. “That is what all hell in the Middle East breaking loose is.”

The discussion from Real Time With Bill Maher, posted Friday by Mediaite, can be seen below.