Delaware Dem is buried under polling numbers, so I’m jumping in on this – with DD’s blessing! There are two separate issues concerning the exchange on Libya last night. I’ll deal with the easy one first.
Mitt Romney Struts into a Beautifully Laid Trap
Here’s the exchange:
MR. ROMNEY: Yeah, I — I certainly do. I certainly do. I — I think it’s interesting the president just said something which is that on the day after the attack, he went in the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror. You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Please proceed.
MR. ROMNEY: Is that what you’re saying?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Please proceed, Governor.
MR. ROMNEY: I — I — 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.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Get the transcript.
MS. CROWLEY: It — he did in fact, sir.
So let me — let me call it an act of terrorism — (inaudible) —
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy? (Laughter, applause.)
Here’s the thing, I think Obama’s use of the phrase “act of terror” last night was deliberate. I think he just knew Romney would jump on that exact phrase – which is something the Romney campaign might want to think about. Obama would have never been able to pull this off without Romney acting according to Obama’s plan.
Here’s the second point…
Romney Was Offensive
Obama had every right to say this:
The day after the attack, governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people and 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.
And then a few days later, I was there greeting the caskets coming into Andrews Air Force Base and grieving with the families.
And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the Secretary of State, our U.N. Ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we’ve lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. That’s not what we do. That’s not what I do as president, that’s not what I do as Commander in Chief.
What has astounded me since the Libya incident is the way that Romney’s first instinct was to run to a microphone and politicize a tragedy. While our embassy staff was fighting and dying Mitt Romney was willing to use them to score political points. There is no other explanation for what Romney did that night.
And I’m not saying that we can’t discuss Libya. I’m saying that Mitt Romney practically performed a happy dance that night. I’m saying that the only thing on his mind was scoring political points. He wasn’t thinking about the country. He wasn’t capable of restraint or level headedness. He wasn’t even capable of recognizing the complexities of events such as these. Basically, he’s a loose cannon. And I truly believe that his behavior that tragic night disqualifies him for the office of the presidency.
DELAWARE DEM: Thanks Pandora for tackling this subject. I agree completely with you. Mitt Romney is, plain and simple, a craven opportunistic asshole who was perfectly content to dance on the graves of those four honorable and patriotic Americans we lost if it served him politically. What caused last night’s epic Gerald Ford Moment for Mitt Romney was not necessarily anything that the President did, but the fact that the right wing lives in a conservative news bubble, fueling itself in an endless loop between Drudge, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and the host of Brietbartian blogs. They actually believed that the President didn’t say the attack was an act of terror because they believed their own propaganda without actually reading or watching what the President said. They got hoisted on their own pretard and it was a beautiful thing to see. And can I say, the most thrilling moment of that Libya encounter was not the Candy Crowley Fact Check but it was President Obama’s “How Dare You Sir” stare down of Romney. I have never seen the President so passionate, so righteously angry, so indignant, and the look on Romney’s face was one of pure weakness.