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.
OK. In fairness to Obama, I am disturbed that I see a growing number of people saying he has a failed foreign policy. This is not true. He has no foreign policy. His laser like focus is on jobs. He and his administration will not rest until there are no jobs. Please be honest. Thank you.
When Romney says tommorrow Night that Mr. President you said last week you were offended that someone would Suggest you would Mislead the American People about an Ambassador being Killed,These are your people ,you send them into Dangerous areas,WELL,YOU,The Secretary of State,Your UN Ambassador,In appearance after appearance Stated That The Intelligence you had at the time,said this was caused by a Video. Mr.President the “Sensitve Documents”sent by Ambassador Stevens Himself,and there were several,was begging for additonal security.He stated that Islamic Extremism was on the Rise,Alqueda Flags were flying over Government Buildings,the Attacks on the American Red Cross,the British Ambassador were by Islamist extremists,and was going to get worse unless more security was sent.
Now Mr. President,neither you,Hillary Clinton,or UN ambassador Susan Rice mentioned Islamic Extremism,Alqueda at all as being involved in any of these actions on Television or the speech in the Rose Garden or any of the Comedy or talk shows. This is your problem Mr. President Your Ideology,you refuse to Identify who it is who are trying to kill us,you are purging from all Government Corresponce any mention of Islamist extremism,your Campaign until the Murder of ambassador Stevens was claiming that Alqueda was on its Heels,now you drop that from your speeches. Yes Mr. President you have Mislead the American People,your Ideology Prevents you from admitting who it is we are Fighting and the American People Are entitled to Know the truth and to Have a President who has the Courage to Tell it to them
The six hours of watching the attack live will be The Disaster’s death knell.
This is the most outrageous thing I have ever heard of for a leader.
There is nothing he can say that will excuse the six hours of non-action when they were watching the attack live. Not one thing.
Hammering The Disaster will be the easiest thing Romney has ever done. The bubble has popped.
Eactly, I think the lawyer in Romney alerted him to something going on between Obama and Candy Crowley and he knew better than to fall into some sort of trap.
Obama didn’t miss an opportunity to put this away because there is no excuse for either Obama’s actions or his inaction concerning the Benghazi attack. The State Dept watched the whole attack in real time from cameras inside the Benghazi compound. They watched and did nothing.
A poster on the WSJ comment board, said that they could have had a rapid response team in Benghazi within a half hour, 10 minutes to get ready and get the planes in the air and 20 minutes flight time, from an air base in Southern Italy, 450 miles away. The poster gave all the numbers and flight speeds, but I don’t remember that part.
Instead, Obama and his people allowed the attack to go on for 6 hours.
It's beyond my comprehension. Undoubtedly he was being given options and being urgently reminded that the decision to act was his sole authority.
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