Mr. Obama’s aides indicated that he would have reconsidered his trip had the violence in Libya and Egypt spilled into a second day in a major way. But with any follow-up protests remaining relatively modest, the president will monitor events from Air Force One as he makes his way here, aides said.
Leaving the White House in the aftermath of a crisis may be still less politically risky in this case, given that Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, injected the crisis into campaign terms by immediately criticizing the administration’s handling of it. Mr. Obama has yet to directly respond to him.
His next opportunity to do so will come when he speaks here at around 8:30 p.m. Eastern.
Even as Mr. Obama’s campaign was processing the developments in Benghazi, Libya, it was also moving ahead early Wednesday with the release of a new advertisement attacking Mr. Romney on taxes. Running here in Nevada, in Iowa, in Virginia and in Ohio, the ad accuses Mr. Romney of having a secret plan that would slash taxes for millionaires and raise them for the middle class.
Secret plan, eh?
Wonder what secret plan Obama has had, is having and is sure to still have.