Posted on 10/20/2012 9:14:53 PM PDT by zencycler
Obama thought he was being clever trapping Mitt with his "act of terror" ploy, and critics piled on Romney for missing his opportunity to nail Obama on his poor response in the aftermath of the Benghazi attacks.
But actually, it's Obama who missed the opportunity. Obama needed to come up with a coherent defense, even a dubious one, which could plausibly explain his and his administration's statements on Benghazi. That should have been part of his "debate prep", and he and his staff should have taken the time to think up some substantive response.
But instead, he opted for a shortcut based on a semantic ploy. He proclaimed that the words "no acts of terror", which he spoke on Sept 12th (and whom most thought referred to 9/11/2001 at the time) was how he described the attacks on Benghazi.
It won't pay to fight this battle on his turf - semantics - because they are his words, and he'll be able to control the argument better regarding what he meant when he said it. I think Obama's confidence on this issue stems from his expectation that this is the battle he'll need to fight.
Don't bet on it. The battle that's coming, which he'll be sure to lose, is for him to now explain, if he knew it was terrorism on Sept 12th, how can he possibly defend all of the conflicting, apologetic, video-denouncing, video-blaiming, and Islam-honoring statements which followed!
His only defense of these statements would have been that there was an early belief that the video played a role in these attacks, followed by some confusion and and ongoing concern that the video would spark protests elsewhere.
The only real issue, which could be proved, was sloppy communication and confusion. Obama missed the opportunity to own up to this problem, and give a substantive response which would have put this issue to rest.
Instead, he made his problem worse. By saying he knew the attacks were an "act of terror" on Sept 12th, everything that followed is no longer just mere confusion. Now, all the conflicting, apologetic, video-denouncing, video-blaiming, and Islam-honoring statements which followed can justly be portrayed as being politically motivated, misleading, and dishonest.
Mr. President, our embassy was attacked on the anniversary of Sept 11th, you now admit you know it was an "act of terror" on Sept 12th, and yet you and others in your administion spent the next two weeks blaming a video, apologizing for a video and confusing everyone about what really happened.
I can't see anyway Obama can now defend against this.
Great points.
Monday night is going to be VERRRY interesting.
They must be boiling pots of coffee at Team Obama headquarters, even at this very moment.
And exactly how were all these people to have seen this video? I certainly didn’t notice it being advertised on the marque of any of their hundreds of theaters, did not see it advertised on any of their news channels-and I am sure everyone in all these countries have a wide screen colored TV-, I didn’t see it downloaded on anyone’s free government iPhone nor did I see it playing on the screen of anyone’s computer, although I am sure all these people have at least one in each of their homes.
You would think that with all the copies of this DVD the producer of the video obviously sold, he would have had enough money to flee the US instead of hiding out and be arrested. /s/
obama’s pick-and-choose no rhyme no reason “Arab Spring” thing has backfired, big time.
He should have backed the Iranian uprising; he didn’t.
Libya was, like Egypt a country reasonably stable and playing by international rules.
When Khaddafi was killed it fell apart. There is no government, to speak of in charge, let alone controlling Benghazzi (sp) which is now a muslim activist/terrorist beachhead.
This contradicts obama’s narrative; hence the cover-up.
Obama’s failure chickens are roosting right in time for his total invalidation as the leader of the free world.
Only about 30% of us caught that, in 2008.
Not much we can do, save exhort and prepare.
Great read that should be sent to the Romney campaign if anybody has connections.
MOVE OVER, Karl Rove & let zencycler sit down in front of that hurricane making machine!
Romney was starting to make that point (admin. blaming the video for >10 days even though they knew it was organized terrorism) before Cowley cut off debate on that important question.
There is no way to suitably explain months of rejecting requests FROM EVERYONE WHO KNEW ANYTHING for more security. There is no way to explain actually REDUCING security in Libya in the face of these experts begging for help.
This finishes him.
I don’t think there was anything he could do or say. This was a screw-up of monumental proportions which took months to precipitate. Once the hook bites there is no shaking it.
He wisely stopped talking, reviewed everything he knew, and knew something was afoot. Not knowing exactly what was going on, but knowing that it made no sense, it was wise to just 'do nothing.'
In hindsight it's easy to say he should have pushed on ... but watching the debate with 3 libs ... I just thought 'huh? what the hell is this?' I didn't argue because I couldn't make sense of it - and yet it was too much to expect that they weren't quoting something real.
Romney was baffled - as I was - as he should have been - it made no sense and of course now we understand why. But best not to act when baffled.
Candy only knew about this because Axelrod in a previous interview 'caught' her on the same point. Extremely cheap and disengenuous. That Obama knew she had the transcript is proof it was a premeditated word-game. I think the US - even moderate dems - will have a tough time accepting any candidate out of Chicago for a long long time.
0bama lied. Then he lied and he lied and then he lied some more.
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For weeks now I have thought that the denial of requests for security were a dereliction of duty. I consider the lies and misdirection about the "video" after the attack to be fraud and malfeasance under the color of authority. I don't consider the inaction during the attack to be any of those.
IMO the failure to act during the attack is the direct equivalent of desertion.
ONE MAN had the authority to act that night.
ONE MAN deserted his post!
Agreed.
Even conservative commentators said that Obama’s “Proceed, Governor” comment was an attempt to bounce attention away from Obama. Not at all.
“Proceed Governor” was “keep walking Romney, please keep talking, no need to discuss with me, we’ve got the trap laid, I know exactly what’s about to happen, keep talking.”
... few seconds later “Candy! Get the transcript!!!!” then “Candy !!! Say that a little louder!!” ... then applause.
I don’t even wish this guy on Iran.
Romney is smart. It was a well laid trap and he spotted it and stopped short.
Excellent job. Excellent thinking.
Fixed it for you.
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