Oct. 16 - Benghazi Incident Discussion

Question #8 in the October 16, 2012 debate had to do with who and why enhanced security was denied in Benghazi, Libya. President Obama first explained that the people serving around the world he knows along with their families and he is concerned with their security. He said as soon as he heard of the incident he told staff to 1) beef up security in the area, 2) thoroughly investigate what happened and 3) hunt down who did it. He reminded us that while he was dealing with this incident Romney put out an erroneous press release trying to make political points and that’s not how a commander in chief should act; when it comes to national security he said he means what he says – go after Bin Laden and end wars and he took responsibility for what happened. Mitt Romney said the President was right in taking responsibility for the failure; he said what he found disturbing was that they day after it happened the President flew to Las Vegas, Nevada for a fundraiser and then to Colorado for a political event, he said it’s a sign of Obama’s failed foreign policy and brought up what is happening in Syria, Egypt, Israel, Libya and Iran; he said Obama’s strategy of leading from behind is unraveling before our very eyes.

The moderator, Candy Crowley, said the Secretary of State (Sos) took responsibility for Benghazi does the buck stop with her? Obama responded – she works for me and he’s ultimately responsible. Obama said the day after the incident he stood in the Rose Garden (of the White House) and talked with the American people and a few days later he was there to meet the coffins when they came home; he also said he found it offensive that Romney would imply that the SoS, UN Ambassador or anyone on his team would mislead the people. Romney started his response with trying to egg on the President about saying it was an act of terror the day after the event; the President said yes and please proceed; Romney pressed the point and said it took 14 days – Candy jumped in and said he did mention it the next day and also told Romney the official statement calling it an act of terror did come 14 days later; even after her statements Romney would not let go of that one point and brought up the UN Ambassador’s statement on September 16. The President said he’d love to have a longer conversation about this but…he and Candy agreed they needed to move it along.

The original question was not answered but I have other issues – the President was in the Rose Garden on September 12 at 10:35 am EST, arrived in Nevada at 6:50 pm EST (3:50 PST) and was in Aurora, Colorado at 11:55 pm EST (9:55 MST). It is beyond my comprehension what this has to do with unraveling foreign policy and leading from behind. At least Obama wasn’t out campaigning in Reno, Nevada on 9/11 (he was honoring the fallen). Romney says he wants less regulation but constantly is judging everyone but himself. Even when he admitted he was wrong about the 47% he stood by his authoritarian ways and didn’t apologize. This in my opinion is not the attitude or behavior of someone I want in the White House.