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(KENNEBUNK, Maine) — The first batch of men charged with being clients of a woman accused of turning her Zumba dance studio into a brothel included a former mayor and men from more than a dozen towns in Maine, as well as one each from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. After initial confusion caused by the [...]
When bad things happen, it’s human nature to accentuate the positive, as Johnny Mercer put it. That’s precisely what the Obama Administration did following the September 11 killing of U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three fellow Americans in a terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
The Administration spent days trying – hoping – that an inflammatory U.S. anti-Muslim video sparked a spontaneous attack. Even as it became clear that it was a sophisticated planned strike by militias possibly linked to al Qaeda, the Administration continued to blame the video.
In Tuesday night’s second presidential debate, we also learned that President Obama isn’t beyond twisting what he said then to make him sound better now:
Obama: The day after the attack, governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people in the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. That this was an act of terror and I also said that we’re going to hunt down those who committed this crime…
Romney: I think interesting the president just said something which – which is that on the day after the attack he went into the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror.
Obama: That’s what I said.
Romney: You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror? It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you’re saying?
Obama: Please proceed governor.
Romney: I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the President 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.
Obama: Get the transcript.
So we did. According to that transcript, here’s what Obama said in the Rose Garden Sept. 12 at the end of his five-minute statement:
As Americans, let us never, ever forget that our freedom is only sustained because there are people who are willing to fight for it, to stand up for it, and in some cases, lay down their lives for it. Our country is only as strong as the character of our people and the service of those both civilian and military who represent us around the globe. No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.
Pretty weak reed.
We also learned that Mitt Romney can’t shake the stink he generated by jumping on the attacks in Benghazi and Cairo before the smoke, literally, had cleared.
“While we were still dealing with our diplomats being threatened, Governor Romney put out a press release, trying to make political points, and that’s not how a commander-in-chief operates,” Obama snarled. “You don’t turn national security into a political issue — certainly not right when it’s happening.”
Romney, in turn, accused Obama with putting partisan politics above national security. “On the day following the assassination of the United States ambassador, the first time that’s happened since 1979 — when we have four Americans killed there, when apparently we didn’t know what happened, that the President, the day after that happened, flies to Las Vegas for a political fund-raiser, then the next day to Colorado for another event, other political event,” he countered.
It was in Colorado, two days after the attack, that Obama more explicitly linked it to terrorism:
So what I want all of you to know is that we are going to bring those who killed our fellow Americans to justice. I want people around the world to hear me: to all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. It will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America.
Think of it as a he-said, he-said debate.
That question about Libyan security, or the lack of it, was the only one Tuesday night that dealt with national-security matters. “I’m happy,” Obama as he and Romney wrestled over Libya, “to have a longer about foreign policy.”
He’ll get his wish next Monday night when the two square off on the topic in Boca Raton, Fla. But if the tension between the two candidates – which seemed to spike when responding to the Libya question – is repeated during the foreign-policy session, it could turn into yet another lengthy engagement without a clear victor.
(HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.) — An aggressive President Barack Obama accused challenger Mitt Romney of favoring a “one-point plan” to help the rich and leveling offensive criticism about the recent deadly terrorist attack in Libya Tuesday night in a debate crackling with energy and emotion just three weeks before the election.
Romney pushed back hard, saying the middle class “has been crushed over the last four years,” that 23 million Americans are struggling to find work and that the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya was part of an unraveling of the administration’s foreign policy.
The president was feistier from the outset than he had been in their initial encounter two weeks ago, when he turned in a listless performance that sent shudders through his supporters and helped fuel a rise by Romney in opinion polls nationally and in some battleground states.
(MORE: Mark Halperin: Grading the Town Hall Debate)
Obama challenged Romney on economics and energy policy, accusing him of switching positions and declaring that his economic plan was a “sketchy deal” that the public should reject.
Romney gave as good as he got.
“You’ll get your chance in a moment. I’m still speaking,” the former Massachusetts governor said at one point while Obama was mid-sentence. He said the president’s policies had failed to jumpstart the economy and crimped energy production.
The open-stage format left the two men free to stroll freely across a red-carpeted stage, and they did. Their clashes crackled with energy and tension, and the crowd watched raptly as the two sparred while struggling to appear calm and affable before a national television audience.
The rivals disagreed about taxes, measures to reduce the deficit, energy, pay equity for women and health care issues. Immigration prompted yet another clash, Romney saying Obama had failed to pursue the comprehensive legislation he promised at the dawn of his administration, and the president saying Republican obstinacy made a deal impossible.
Under the format agreed to in advance, members of an audience of 82 uncommitted voters posed questions to the president and his challenger.
(MORE: The Problem With Romney’s Jobs Pledge)
Nearly all of them concerned domestic policy until one raised the subject of the recent death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya in a terrorist attack at an American post in Benghazi.
Romney said it took Obama a long time to admit the episode had been a terrorist attack, but Obama said he had said so the day after in an appearance in the Rose Garden outside the White House.
When moderator Candy Crowley of CNN said the president had in fact done so, Obama, prompted, “Say that a little louder, Candy.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has taken responsibility for the death of Ambassador L. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, but Obama said bluntly, “I’m the president and I’m always responsible.
Romney said it was “troubling” that Obama continued with a campaign event in Las Vegas on the day after the attack in Libya, an event he said had “symbolic significance and perhaps even material significance.”
Obama seemed to bristle. He said it was offensive for anyone to allege that he or anyone in his administration had used the incident for political purposes. “That’s not what I do.”
Before Barack Obama and Mitt Romney debated in Denver, some very smart political scientists tried to dampen the overheated expectations game with a dose of historical context. Debates, they argued, usually don’t matter that much. Then Romney beat Obama in Denver and took off in the polls, turning a race that seemed like Obama’s to lose into a nail-biter with three weeks to go. What happened?
We reported last month about the Defense Department taking down the sign honoring a Pentagon hallway as the "Correspondents Corridor" and replacing it with one highlighting "ASD Public Affairs." ASD is Pentagon-speak for Assistant Secretary of Defense. It is part of a $90,000 renovation to the E-ring hallway, which will honor correspondents as well as the military's public-affairs officers, Tuesday's Washington Post reports.
Tribal — and religious — distinctions that used to define our leaders and ourselves have fallen away
It's not all hippies backing November's marijuana legalization votes in Colorado, Oregon and Washington.
Sam Nunn left the Senate in 1997. Richard Lugar lost his bid for a seventh term in May. So perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that their landmark 1991 legislation, the Nunn-Lugar act that created the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, may be passing into history
PSA: Jokes about bombs at airports are never funny.
Vikram Pandit stepped down as CEO of Citigroup on Tuesday after steering the bank through 2008 financial crisis and the choppy years that followed.
