Rand Paul Is His Own Troll

by evanmcmurry

Senator Rand Paul told Clinton he would have fired her after Benghazi if he were president.

So apparently a Congressional Hearing is the real-life version of an internet comments section.

The Last Sane Conservative Tries To Reason With The Rabble, Fails

by evanmcmurry

Life must be lonely for the two or three remaining sane conservative pundits out there. Thus we find certified-non crazy Kathleen Parker* trying to reason with those in her party, including former Bush administration officials, that Hillary Clinton really truly did not fake a blood clot to get out of testifying on Benghazi:

Clinton may well prefer to miss her day before the firing squad, but it is unlikely that doctors or a hospital would assist a secretary of state — or anyone — in concocting a fake affliction.

It’s sad that such an argument has to be stated, though I’m not sure it does: if you’re the type of person to believe that the Secretary of State would fake a concussion, what are the chances the above logic, or any other, will appeal to you? We’re two days away from someone at Breitbart.com researching Clinton’s doctors and finding one whose mother-in-law lives in Chicago and therefore Bill Ayers. Why is Parker bothering with these people?

* Parker, you will recall, never caught Palin fever, an apostasy for which she was nearly excommunicated from the party.

Obama Needs An Answer On Libya, Quick

by evanmcmurry

The Obama Administration has gotten itself into a bad pretzel over the Benghazi attacks. The opening question on Libya struck me as particularly bad for Biden in last week’s debate; sure enough, even as the rest of Biden’s performance has since faded into general lore, his answer on Libya has lived on in specifics. Romney has made hay of the fact that Biden et al didn’t know about additional security requests. And especially with conflicting statements from the State Department, he’s actually got a good case for criticism.

Moreover, I don’t think Clinton taking a hit on this is going to convince anybody, and it opens Obama up to exactly what John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Lindsey Graham fired at him immediately following Clinton’s late-night emergence from under the bus:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and two of his colleagues said that “the buck stops” with President Obama with respect to the terrorist attacks in Libya, but they praised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her willingness to claim the blame in the absence of the White House taking responsibility.

“The security of Americans serving our nation everywhere in the world is ultimately the job of the Commander-in-Chief,” said McCain in a joint statement with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. “The buck stops there.”

[…] The senators took issue with her statement on two points. “If the President was truly not aware of this rising threat level in Benghazi, then we have lost confidence in his national security team, whose responsibility it is to keep the President informed,” they said.

If you’re a fired-up Mitt Romney, you hit Obama with this all night. Romney has gotten nowhere all campaign with his “Obama = apologizer” foreign policy line; now, just weeks before the election, he has a legitimate FP gripe with the administration. All of Obama’s increased debate prep may be for naught if he can’t find a good answer to Romney’s challenge.