Libya Is Debate's First Question -- And Question Left Unanswered

FoxNews ^ | October 23, 2012 | FoxNews

[Son House]

But although moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News raised the topic of the Sept. 11 attack in Libya in his first question onstage Monday in Boca Raton, Fla., Romney and then Obama instead responded by broadening the topic to Al Qaeda, the Arab Spring and the Middle East.

Romney only mentioned Libya once, saying that the attack was carried out "apparently by, I think we know now, by terrorists of some kind against our people there."

He went on to “congratulate (Obama) on taking out Usama bin Laden and going after the leadership in Al Qaeda. But we can’t kill our way out of this mess. We’re going to have to put in place a very comprehensive and robust strategy.”

Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack in Benghazi, Libya. The Obama administration has faced criticism for its changing explanation of the attack, in particular claims that it was a "spontaneous" outgrowth of protests over an anti-Islam film.

Intelligence officials still are looking at the possibility that the film played a role in sparking the attack, and it isn't clear how long the attackers had been planning the assault on the consulate -- though some reports say it may have come together in a matter of hours.

In the debate, Obama briefly defended his administration's response to the attack.

"As I indicated in the last debate, when we received that phone call, I immediately made sure that, number one, that we did everything we could to secure those Americans who were still in harm's way; number two, that we would investigate exactly what happened, and number three, most importantly, that we would go after those who killed Americans and we would bring them to justice. And that's exactly what we're going to do," he said.

[RummyChick]

I completely agree with you. Last night I was upset that Romney did not go after Libya. However, there was no way to come out ahead on Libya at this point.

It is one big disaster with Obama camp still claiming that it is possible that the video was the start of it...because intelligence INDICATES it is possible. Even the State Dept has now come out and said that the video may be responsible

All Obama has to do is blame it on Intelligence and what can Romney say. Patraeus did tell Congress that there was a protest and it was caused by the video.

Why didn’t Obama send it a team to save those people. Maybe Congress will find out.

We now know, and some of us suspected all along, that Benghazi was a CIA post.

This really lands at their door.

[archy]

That's where Obama’s head is out. A big pro-America rally he considers a victory, in a city with black Al Quaeda flags flying on govt buildings.

Not all those black flags are those of Al-Quaeda supporters. Not by a long shot.