Did Hillary Clinton Really Take Responsibility For The Security Failure In Benghazi?

Much has been made about Hillary Clinton's apparent acceptance of responsibility for the security failure at the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya that led to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and staff during a terrorist attack.

But there is something missing from Clinton's statement:




Lori Lowenthal Marcus writes that Clinton Takes ‘Responsibility’ for Benghazi, But Not Blame:

Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton told CNN during an interview in Lima, Peru on Tuesday, Oct. 16, that she takes “responsibility” for what happened at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on the evening of September 11, 2011. But, she said, “what I want to avoid is some kind of political gotcha or blame game.”

What?

If you’ve said you take responsibility for something, there is no “gotcha” or “blame game,” your acknowledgement means that you are the one to be blamed for the failure, that you are responsible for the consequences of the failures that occurred under your watch. So the question may remain whether the Secretary can credibly deflect responsibility from President Obama for the failure that led to the murders of American personnel in the most dangerous part of the world on the anniversary of the single worst attack on our country in history, not whether or not someone is to blame.

Marcus has a point.

When you watch the video of Clinton accepting responsibility for the breakdown in security, you do not see contrition, you see disdain -- disdain for those who point out the contradicting stories emanating from the Obama administration about what happened and the conflicting explanations of who knew what, when.

But just listening to the video, you would not know that at issue is a terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11 -- one that took the lives of American citizens.

Investors Business Daily notes the superficiality of Clinton's claim to accept responsibility for Benghazi and that:

Clinton herself blithely moved on to other topics, telling Peruvians less than a day after accepting such responsibility that "when I get tired of reading hundreds and hundreds of pages of depressing reports about what's happening somewhere or another, I either watch decorating shows on television or I read ... magazines that tell you how to decorate your home if you have the time to do so. (Laughter.)"

In any case, some say that by "falling on the sword" for Obama, Clinton keeps alive the option to run for president in 2016.

Yet now, after being told that it is Clinton -- not Obam -- who is not responsible for the security failure, now we are told that Obama does in fact take responsibility for the security breakdown:

Suddenly, after a month of pointing fingers, we see both Clinton and Obama accepting responsibility. I haven't seen such a rush to claim responsibility since that famous scene from the end of the movie Spartacus:

Just a note: in the movie Spartacus, the slaves who all jump up to take credit for being Spartacus -- end up being crucified.

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Technorati Tag: Hillary Clinton and Obama and Benghazi and Election 2012.