Saturday Open Thread [10.24.15]

The Washington Post with some reasons why Hillary Clinton emerged victorious from her marathon Benghazi testimony:

The GOP landed no solid punches. In a striking moment after the hearing adjourned at 9 p.m., committee Chair Trey Gowdy told reporters he learned nothing new from Clinton’s testimony. […] My colleague Bob Costa relays that there was no celebrating and, privately, many admitted Clinton was formidable.

Clinton looked like a fighter, something the Democratic base craves. One of Hillary’s problems is that primary voters in the early states think she lacks fire in the belly (that’s part of what Bernie Sanders is tapping into). Yesterday, Clinton looked more like a David throwing rocks than a Goliath wearing armor.

Clinton became a sympathetic figure when the Republicans badgered. GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo was ridiculed, including by conservative thought leaders, for pressing Clinton on whether Ambassador Chris Stevens had her personal e-mail, cell-phone number, Fax number, or home address. The Kansan’s argument that Clinton friend Sid Blumenthal had more access to Clinton than the Libyan ambassador looked ham-handed. Alabama Rep. Martha Roby got mocked online for asking Hillary if she spent the night alone after the Benghazi attack. When Hillary laughed, Roby did not understand why and became upset.

Clinton committed no made-for-TV gaffe. Hillary clearly prepared carefully, and it showed. This was the strongest of her three congressional appearances related to Benghazi. Most importantly, she avoided giving her opponents the kind of devastating soundbite that she did two years ago when she told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), waving her arms: “What difference, at this point, does it make!?” That line remains a staple of Republican stump speeches. There was no parallel yesterday.

Clinton did not seem evasive, which could help with her trustworthiness problem. Sitting there and taking every question made Hillary look transparent, especially after the spring scandal over her failure to turn over e-mails and the summer stories about refusing to give interviews to the national media. Remember, George W. Bush only agreed to speak with the 9/11 Commission for one hour – and in private. Under oath, Clinton could have been exceedingly cautious about what she revealed. But, precisely because she is a presidential candidate, she was surprisingly expansive.

Clinton looked presidential. She vigorously defended her State Department record and showed her understanding of foreign affairs She came across as serious and dignified and her presence filled the room. She recounted in grueling detail the chaos and uncertainty of the night of the attacks: “This was the fog of war,” she said dramatically. In perhaps the most powerful moment of the day, she declared: “I would imagine I’ve thought more about what happened than all of you put together. I’ve lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done.”

First Read says it was a very bad showing for the Republicans: “Hillary Clinton’s goal yesterday was to survive (which she more than accomplished), while Republicans’ goal was to justify the legitimacy of the Benghazi Committee (which they failed to do). Yesterday was a really poor showing for House Republicans.”

“What did they accomplish? They re-litigated the actual Benghazi attack, which has been debated and examined over the past three years. They almost turned Sidney Blumenthal into a sympathetic figure (which, trust us, is hard to do). They really had no understanding of how the State Department bureaucracy works in wondering why Chris Stevens never emailed Clinton while Blumenthal did… And then Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), after the 11-hour event, had a difficult time answering the question what new was learned.”

“How else do we know that yesterday was a disaster for Republicans? We saw more Republicans wanting to talk about President Obama’s Defense veto than what was occurring at the Benghazi committee. Bottom line: Just like at last week’s Democratic debate, Clinton was good yesterday — not great. But she looked great compared with her opposition.”

The words of Markos Moulitsas should please Jason, as he has his own list of observations:

1. The GOP is the enemy. Hillary Clinton knows this. And head-to-head, they’ve got nothing on her. After eight years of President Barack Obama’s well-intentioned but futile efforts to work with the GOP, this is refreshing. The hatred is now mutual and two-sided. Finally.

2. Rep. Elijah Cummings for vice-president. I’m serious.

3. The GOP just did more to unify the party base around Clinton and intensify her support than she could’ve ever managed to do on her own. Watch the polling confirm this in the coming weeks, improving on her post-debate positive movement.

4. Jim Webb is out, Lincoln Chaffee is out, and Joe Biden never got in. So we’re left with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and even Bernie probably wants to vote for Hillary after yesterday (even if just for a moment).

5. In her place, I would’ve jumped over my witness table and punched one of those assholes within 20 minutes. Her restraint was unreal. Unflappable. Sober. It was a marathon designed to break her, but it was the Republicans on the committee who broke first, spittle flying in the final hours.

6. The GOP’s stupidity in all of this is epic. They should’ve cancelled the hearings after last week’s debates, as it was clear she was on her “A” game. But if you don’t cancel, at least prepare with something more than, “Your friends visit you at home, but your coworkers do not!”

7. Do those asshole Republicans really not realize that we have multiple modes of communication that aren’t email? Rep. Westmoreland sure as heck didn’t know the difference between an email address and a server. Someone get Ted Stevens to explain the internet to him.

Will Saletan:

Since the emails showed nothing new, Republicans went back to old myths. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio accused Clinton of blaming the Benghazi attack on an anti-Muslim video.Apparently, he was unaware—or didn’t care—that in previous hearings, other Republicans had acknowledged Clinton was innocent of that charge. Jordan insisted that Clinton’s statement on the night of the attack—“Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet”—amounted to an attribution of motive. He ignored Clinton’s explanation that her statement—which continued, “There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind”—was a warning to rationalizers and would-be copycats. He accused Clinton of lying about the attack in public while privately telling the truth to her own family.

Jonathan Allen:

Republicans will kick themselves for dragging Hillary Clinton before the House Benghazi committee Thursday.

It was a defining moment for Clinton’s presidential aspirations. She handled the GOP’s questions with aplomb and without the patina of partisanship that has characterized the committee since its conception. That would have been bad enough for the Republicans’ hopes of seizing the White House in 2017. But she did much more than that. She answered questions that Republicans have been hanging out there in hopes of sowing doubts among voters.

Does she believe in American exceptionalism? Yes.

Can she be non-partisan, serious, and policy-minded? Yes.

Is her mental acuity superior to pretty much anyone you know? Yes.

Is she human? Yes.

Does she have the energy to be president? Yes.

NY Times sums it up:

A beleaguered Jeb Bush slashed his campaign spending. Donald J. Trump lost his lead in Iowa. And a surging Ben Carson galvanized his support among social conservatives.

With Hillary Rodham Clinton emerging as the unrivaled leader in the Democratic contest, the unruly Republican presidential field suddenly seemed to lack a center of political gravity, leaving party strategists and voters to fear a long nomination fight that could end with a damaged standard-bearer facing a more unified left.
…

“The Republican camp is in total disarray,” said Edward J. Rollins, a veteran Republican strategist, who lamented the prospect of several more sprawling debates that fail to narrow the field, saying that Mr. Trump’s “reality show antics” would get in the way of the winnowing that needs to occur, and the sooner the better. “A long, dragged-out battle on our side only makes it more difficult to get ready for Hillary,” he said.