Posted on 10/19/2012 9:47:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the game of poker it’s called a “tell.” A player raises his left eyebrow or licks his lower lip or makes some other unintentional but revealing gesture every time he draws a third jack or, alternatively, bluffs. A skilled opponent uses this to his advantage.
In Monday night’s third and final presidential debate, we will see whether Mitt Romney is skilled enough to read Barack Obama’s “tell” on Benghazi. He already used it, tipping his hand in Debate 2, but Romney either missed it or failed to call the president out on it.
See if you can pick it up. Here is the official White House transcript of the president speaking at a campaign rally in San Francisco on Oct. 9:
Now, four years ago, I made a few commitments to you. I told you I’d end the war in Iraq, and I did. I said I’d end the war in Afghanistan, and we are. I said we’d refocus on the people who actually attacked us on 9/11—and today, al Qaeda is on its heels and Osama bin Laden is no more.
Here he is two days later in Miami. Again, the source is the White House website:
Four years ago, I told you we’d end the war in Iraq—and we did. I said that we’d end the war in Afghanistan—and we are. I said that we’d refocus on the people who actually attacked us on 9/11—and today, al Qaeda is on its heels and Osama bin Laden is dead.
Now compare both excerpts from his standard prefabricated stump speech with his claim during the debate last Tuesday:
[W]hen it comes to our national security, I mean what I say. I said I’d end the war in Libya—in—in Iraq, and I did. I said that we’d go after al-Qaeda and bin Laden, we have.
Did you notice the difference? It’s subtle but substantive. The line about al Qaeda being “on its heels” has been modified to the more modest claim that “we’d go after al Qaeda.”
This was no slip of the tongue. Obama didn’t inadvertently omit a boast he meant to make. The day after the debate he said in Mount Vernon, Iowa (again, according to the official White House summary of his remarks):
Four years ago, I told you we’d end the war in Iraq—and I did. I said we’d end the war in Afghanistan—and we are. I said we’d focus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11—and we have, and bin Laden is dead.
His spiel has been carefully reconfigured to match the revised administration narrative about what happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11. Early on, the president and his spokesmen clung to a plausible-sounding explanation for the attack—that it was a mob response to an anti-Islamic video. Even after House testimony clarified that that was not what went down, he dispatched his U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, to five (count ‘em, five) news shows the following Sunday to perpetuate the party line, which the president repeated himself on late night TV.
As it became increasingly obvious to the American public that this was a planned, coordinated terror attack, likely orchestrated by Osama bin Laden’s successor and specifically pre-determined to coincide with Sept. 11, Obama grudgingly accepted the truth—which he probably knew on Sept. 12, the day he made his Rose Garden speech.
If he tries to weasel out of his obvious politicization of the attack in Debate 3, as he did in Debate 2, Romney will be ready. And Obama knows it.
My guess is that hussein will be a no show for the third debate. He will be much too busy in his superman cape , personally directing the raids on the bad guys that killed our Americans in Benghazi. Somehow, I think the American people will see right through that one, too.
How in the Hell did she just happen to have the transcript from the Rose Garden speech? Why in the world would a debate moderator have that transcript at their fingertips during the debate?
The very fun and ironic thing is that this has forced the discussion of the Benghazi debacle to be front and center for many more days. It's even more fun to see how the lie is being exposed more every day, this moderator's attempt to bolster Bambi has only heightened the problem for him.
*Fail*
0bama is arming Al Qaeda in Syria, by some accounts.
” How in the Hell did she just happen to have the transcript from the Rose Garden speech? Why in the world would a debate moderator have that transcript at their fingertips during the debate?”
Pre arranged by O and Crowley well before the debate.
“All 0bama has to do is go out and lie,
and call everything Romney says a lie,
and the “moderator” and the media will cover for him.”
But. . . the American likely voter doesn’t seem to be buying it this time.
There is no way she could have brought that transcript with her unless it was done by collaborating with Bambi.
I'm not much for tin foil hat thinking, but there is no other explanation for what happened.
Crowley
” I didn’t (insert lie)
“Romney should focus on Obama’s character”
Absolutely! Maybe he should ask Bozo what he meant about telling the Russians he would have more “Flexability” after the election.
” There is no way she could have brought that transcript with her unless it was done by collaborating with Bambi.”
Correct. They collabarated on everything beforehand. Obama had all of the questions, and Crowley and he rehearsed it all. Crowley is an outspoken feminist/leftist, so I’m sure she saw nothing wrong with any of it.
“Romney also ‘won’ at the Al Smith Dinner.”
I actually consider the Dinner to be Debate #3, in a way — and Mitt definitely won it. He looked good in every way, including “presidential”.
Obama’s tell? If he moves his lips, he’s lying or condescending or both.
I would love to run in to her on a beach somewhere now that I know what she looks like.
The Fourth of July fireworks would be tame if that were to happen...........if she gets unlucky enough to run in to me she might have to go hide in her basement for a few years.
0bama’s stategy for the last debate is to act like his
microphone isn’t working...
...for an hour and a half.
Obama spent his round on Debate 2. He was desparate to avoid going 0 for 2. Romney is on to Obama’s game now and will be on him like white on rice on Monday.
Romney should ask the president this one very painful question, “Why did you, Mr. President, on day 2 of the UN Meeting in NYC announce to the world in your comments that the person who produced the YouTube Video was arrested/detained?”, and (part 2), “Mr. President why would an American innocent of no crime in this Country, exercising his right to free speech, be detained and then you personnaly publicize it to the world?” It seems to me and everyone else that along with your Twitter/Social Media proclaimations throughout the world blaming this this State Department Publica Affairs the attacks on the Video....
I saw the omission at the time and replayed it to make sure I saw what I saw. It seemed to me the AQ line was actually on the teleprompter but he took a bit of a stutter-step and skipped it. It’s gotta be really hard to go against his own TOTUS?
Romney is running a much better campaign than I thought he could, or would.
I don’t think this story is going away, and Crowley has lost all credibility as a journalist. She can’t hide at the CNN building 24/7.
I’d really love to see Romney nail Zero again on his energy policy because it does involve foreign Policy...
Like Zero having to answer why his EPA has cut permits by 40+ percent on Oil Wells on Federal Lands and offshore but Sent Billions of American Tax Dollars to Countries like Brazil so they could drill and sell gas to their citizens for 40 cents a gallon.
I agree. Let us see if Romney is allowed to speak at all. After Crowley, we can’t be sure : )
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