◼ A civil-military headache from the VP debate that could linger - Foreign Policy
Where things really got dicey was when, in response to the charge that the Afghan surge withdrawal timeline was driven by political considerations, Biden tried to hide behind the military. Raddatz pressed him on the complaints she is hearing -- we all are hearing -- but Biden dismissed it as nonsense. He pretended that the withdrawal timeline was proposed by the Joint Chiefs rather than imposed by the White House.◼ DEVASTATING OHIO EDITORIAL: OBAMA'S HANDLING OF LIBYA INDEFENSIBLE - John Nolte/Breitbart
That is not true. The Joint Chiefs and the Afghan combatant commander did go along with the White House order, but they proposed a slower, conditions-based timeline and they certainly did not want it announced at the outset.
This is a very dangerous game to play.
The administration's serial lying continued straight through to last night's vice presidential debate when Vice President Joe Biden declared twice that the administration never received requests for increased security in Benghazi. This is the moment most likely to haunt Obama for the rest of the election. According to one report, the White House has already attempting to distance itself from Biden's remarks...◼ Preventable tragedy: Obama administration can’t spin its way out of blame for Benghazi - Columbus Dispatch Editorial
In March and July, Nordstrom cabled his superiors in the State Department asking for more security at Benghazi, which had much less protection than the embassy in Tripoli. He got no reply.◼ Biden’s Benghazi claim: Is he lying, or is the Obama administration really this incompetent? - Jim Treacher/Daily Caller
His further comment at Wednesday’s hearing is damning: “The takeaway from that, for me and my staff: It was abundantly clear we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident. And the question that we would ask is, again, ‘How thin does the ice have to get before someone falls through?’ ”
That ice broke at 9:40 p.m. on Sept. 11, when a cadre of men stormed the consulate compound. They fired guns, threw grenades and set buildings on fire.
What followed in the ensuing weeks is an astounding display either of incompetence or dishonesty, as Obama administration officials gave constantly shifting accounts of what happened....
The murder of Stevens and his colleagues raises serious questions about the administration’s priorities and competence.
Benghazi is the latest, most glaring example of what Mickey Kaus calls the “undernews.” Again and again, our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters in the mainstream media have tried to ignore stories that might hurt the Democrats. John Edwards, Anthony Weiner, Van Jones, the list goes on and on. If the New York Times and the network newscasts just pretend it’s not happening, maybe it’ll go away on its own. But bloggers and other new-media outlets keep pursuing these stories when the “real” reporters won’t, until they have no choice but to cover them.
