Someone needs to photoshop a bigger bus
Posted on 10/16/2012 7:40:41 AM PDT by RummyChick
Last night from the relative safety of Lima, Peru Hillary Clinton announced that when it comes to the Benghazi disaster the buck stops with her (sort of).
Many have taken this as a sign Hilary is taking the fall for Obama and letting him off the hook. I have a a different theory....David Axlerod tried to throw her under the bus and she tossed it right back on him and Obama.
What Hillary has done is basically say, "the damn phone is ringing and President Creased Trousers isn't answering it so give it to me. She comes off as the grown up who said, look I'm in charge here and for good or ill that makes me responsible".
People tend to admire others who stand up and take the hits. Hillary looks like A-the loyal soldier and B-the only one who is going to stand up and say, "something awful happened on my watch and I'm going to look in the mirror to see who is in charge and not like some other people I could name, look around for scapegoats".
Hillary isn't taking the blame, she's taking the credit.
Now a lot of this is hypocritical because Hillary already tried casting the blame elsewhere but when all else fails, it's sometimes better to own it in the end.
How does this hurt Obama? Well tonight he will be standing next to Mitt Romney. Romney you might recall has made a rather big stink about Obama's failure to lead and his own stellar leadership record.
Here's how he might play this when Benghazi comes up (or he brings it up himself)..."It's all well and good that Secretary Clinton is taking responsibility but my leadership experience has taught me that only the person at the top of the organization is truly responsible. President Obama is at the top of the Executive Branch and he's ducking responsibility. I'd like to know if the President agrees with the Secretary and if he does, why hasn't he asked for her resignation? If he doesn't agree, why doesn't he say who is responsible? Most importantly, why hasn't he taken responsibility from Day 1. Harry Truman didn't say the buck stopped at the Department of State, it stopped at his desk in the Oval Office."
And then it will get ugly for Obama when Romney ads, "And who does the President blame for the failure of his policies to get this economy going? The Secretary of the Treasury? Maybe he blames you the voters for not paying enough in taxes. This country needs a President who accepts the responsibility that comes with the job and doesn't blame his subordinates."
Obama will have no answer to any of that. He also can't fire Hillary because that would cause problems with Team PUMA and his administration would be in disarray 3 weeks before the election
He can't suddenly say, "Oh no, it's me not Hillary who is responsible" because A-he doesn't believe that and B-It's too late. She beat him to the punch, he'll look like he's scrambling to catch up (which he would be).
Mitt's been running a campaign based on his leadership and Obama's unwillingness and inability to lead. The second most popular (maybe the most popular) Democrat in the country, who happens to be Obama's own Secretary of State, just co-signed that charge by stepping into the vacuum Obama's cowardice created.
What Hillary has done is hand Mitt a baseball bat, turned him in the direction of the giant Obama pinata on stage tonight and said, "Have at buddy. Maybe I'll see you in four years".
And what's the downside to Hillary? None. No one is really going to hold her responsible. The DMM (Democratic Machine Media) won't. The GOP certainly won't (update: as predicted) and Obama can't. She'll be hailed as "presidential", "the one official willing to stand up and take responsibility" and ironically enough, a "good soldier".
Don't forget, Hillary has seen a variation on this play work before. Remember Janet Reno taking the blame for Waco? Clinton looked weak and Reno owned him for the rest of his presidency.
Sure it's kabuki theater and there are still plenty of outstanding questions (who said "hey, let's blame a protest about some tape" among them) but the story will be the debate and if Romney can use it to put Obama back on his heels. By the time Hillary gets back in the country the story and the campaign will have moved on and the damage to Obama will be done.
Maybe Hillary didn't do all of this on purpose (but why wait until now to do this?) but intentionally or not, she's teed this up for Mitt. Will he hit it?
14
The moment Hillary took the blame, I figured amemo/email/something would be leaked be an “anonymous source” to prove the admin was specifically told early on. It’s just too perfect. Hillary takes him down and looks like the one who “took the blame” when it wasn’t her fault.
Posted by: Davey Boy at October 16, 2012 09:13 AM (GpWMQ)
All well and good, but the REAL story is the “movie lie” that Obama and all of his minions right down to Tim Carney tried to sell us. It was a bare-faced lie, and coverup.
She didn't limit it to one incident or one failure. She went out there and told everyone what her job description was -- and more importantly, what his was NOT.
She also went to Peru, which effectively forces the White House to answer the questions. Well played.
I said about a month ago that the best way for the Clintons to sabotage Obama (and to try to take the party back for themselves) would be for Hillary to find an excuse to resign right before the election. Like like The Won has given her that opportunity wrapped up with a nice bow...
This does make Hillary look like the grown-up in all this, and makes Obama the goat.
I thought the same thing last night when I read this announcement. The timing of this is not about Hillary taking the blame and being thrown under the bus it is about Hillary outing the intel that is an open secret. Intel that there are listening posts all over the place and people at them heard all this mess and probably saw a lot of it. Unless you kill them all you can’t keep this secret forever.
In the process of outing the intel she is outing obastard for being just what he is... an empty suit not the least bit aware of what is going on or at least not caring what goes on.
obastard just got thrown under the bus by the clintoons in my humble opinion. I think they got fed up with him.
She knows the action is perilous and so did it from Peru. No telling what would happen in Washington. Maybe she will make it back.
exactly... very well played.. man, these 2 sure know the game... with a month of obfiscation, we see who is willing to wear the pants.
sheesh... it just makes him look so incredibly weak, which of course he is...
If Rush doesn’t pick up on this line of thinking then he should..I have to admit, not being a chess player, I hadn’t even thought of this. this was a brilliant stragey on Bill and Hillary’s part.
Was she channeling Alexander Haig?
Payback for the 2008 Democrat Primaries and the shennanigans at the caucases. The Clintons have long political memories.
That was only the first lie.
Hillary taking “respoinsibility” for this has to make people wonder just what obastard is supposed to be doing since the white hut entered the fracas with the lie. If it was Hillary’s job the white hut should have deferred all to her on this matter.... they didn’t. They stepped right in the middle of it.
This is positively ‘Clinton-esque’
I wonder if Bill is behind the strategery?
Great thread and read. The Clinton’s just teed it up for Romney tonight. I will be very disappointed if he doesn’t crush the Marxist with a succinct 2-3 lines about the meaning of true leadership.
Hillary said she was responsible and at the same time threw whoever is in charge of security staffing under the bus.
I love this one: ""What Hillary has done is hand Mitt a baseball bat, turned him in the direction of the giant Obama pinata on stage tonight and said, "Have at buddy. Maybe I'll see you in four years"""""
These are the CLINTONS after all, friends of no one, foe's to all.
Vast right wing conspiracy tea party people cause all this./s
I still have comments on this of course. There are funny scenarios that could play out. We might see obastard try to take the blame for this so that he can assert that he and not Hillary is really in charge.
If I didn’t know better I’d suspect this is checkmate. He is caught in the corner with no good way out. I’m sure I’m wrong though. Axlerod has to have gamed this mess nine ways to Sunday unless Hill just did a random. Hard to game for random and what normally seem like irrational actions.
I’m so glad that someone else sees Hillary’s taking responsibity for the deaths of Ambassador Stevens and the 3 other Americans as, I believe, Hillary and Bill’s “How dare you throw me under the bus, here try this on for size. I’m the adult.” I agree, Hillary just gave Mitt a big base ball bat to club Obama with. Talk about “get evenism” I may be wrong but, I can see Obama losing it tonight because Obama is a petulent child who likes to “PLAY” president but that is as far as it goes.
Romney should bring this up tonight. Who's in charge?
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