What Doesn't Matter to Hillary Clinton

Townhall.com ^ | January 24, 2013 | Debra J. Saunders

[Kaslin]

"With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd they go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi, Libya, which left U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith and Glen Doherty dead. "It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again."

It matters because a protest gone wild or Libyan guys out for a walk require a very different response -- better perimeter security -- than a planned armed terrorist attack. A premeditated attack would show that Foggy Bottom was blindsided. A premeditated attack would mean that the administration probably ought to change the way it thinks.

It matters because news reports place some of the Benghazi thugs in Algeria, where their corpses were found after an attack that left 38 hostages dead, including three Americans. The New York Times reports that Algeria captured three Egyptian militants who where involved in both attacks.

I agree with Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., who said, "Barack Obama was not responsible for the Benghazi attack any more than George W. Bush was responsible for the 9/11 attacks."

But if there is evidence that the overthrow of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi -- however well-deserved -- has destabilized North Africa to an extent that endangers America's national security, the Obama administration would do well to confront that possibility. Mayhap this administration should be more circumspect before further fertilizing the so-called Arab Spring.

The Senate and House hearings Wednesday were not particularly illuminating on that score. For the most part, Democrats fawned over Clinton, while Republicans bloviated when they should have been pressing for specific information.

Republicans resumed their tireless efforts to get the Obama administration to come clean about the thinking behind U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's appearance on "Meet the Press" and other Sunday shows Sept. 16. Rice said, "What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted" by an anti-Islam video. She also claimed there was no evidence the Benghazi attack was "preplanned."

It is clear today that the administration preferred to blame an American-made video rather than well-armed al-Qaida-inspired terrorists; the election was less than two months away.

Now the election is four years away. Still, Clinton refused to acknowledge that the video didn't cause the attack, one that clearly was planned by terrorists. "We don't know all the motivations."

So here's what matters. It matters if al-Qaida-inspired terrorists planned this attack. It matters if the same group was involved in the Algeria killings. It doesn't matter if a few guys angry about a video somehow found themselves in the company of armed militants intent on killing a U.S. ambassador.

[Reddy]

bfl

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Hillary is done—This is America, God love her, we don’t elect old bats to office. She’s looking too old to win any elections. Maybe go back to the Senate for a term of two—or try for a Governorship—but that’s it. Stick a fork in her—she’s done. As for Obama, he too is finished. He has lost his mojo and will no longer be able to turn heads. He better enjoy what he has because by 2014 its going to get hot for him. Prediction: Tea Party is coming back with a vengeance. Rand Paul has shown he can ask the tough questions. The Tax issues will re-surface, along with Obamacare questions and other elements. The five year Honeymoon will come crashing down along with the MSM. Once the folks smell blood—they will fix blame on Obama rather than Bush. 2015-16 will be interesting to watch!

[Political Junkie Too]

Talk about projection, I heard on the radio this morning that the White House is now accusing Republicans of "obsessing" over the video.

Obama making a TV ad was not obsessing, speaking about it at the United Nations was not obsessing, sending Rice out on 5 Sunday shows was not obsessing, jailing the video-maker without due process was not obsessing, but Republicans wanting to find out why Obama lied about the video being the cause - THAT is obsessing.

The scary part is that this is exactly the kind of demonizing rhetoric that Republicans cower from, and then let Obama get away with things.

-PJ

[lentulusgracchus]

(Art.) A premeditated attack would show that Foggy Bottom was blindsided. A premeditated attack would mean that the administration probably ought to change the way it thinks.

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Or it might mean that Obama had a back-channel deal with Egypt's Morsi: Send your MB thugs to kidnap my ambassador to Libya, and we'll string people along for a while until after the election, and then I'll give you the Blind Sheik Omar. After the election.

Did anybody notice that the Algeria attackers made some demands? Anybody notice that Demand No. 1 was the release of the Blind Sheik? Again? Morsi called for him months ago, before Benghazi.

Debra Saunders is deliberately refusing to connect those dots .... and is therefore playing for Obama.