One thing I think should be clear is that I believe the whole "Rose Garden" moment was a beautiful and planned set up by Obama. Obama baited Romney down that path.
The second thing to realize is WHY they did it and the impact of having this big lie exposed at this point in time.
Obama totally baited Romney into going down the "you didn't call it terror for two weeks" road. He knew Romney was going to accuse him of that if given the chance. I'm absolutely convinced they knew Romney would go exactly there.
Watch the tape, it was a total set up. First he takes responsibility and the he says: "The day after the attack, GOVERNOR (LOOKS RIGHT AT ROMNEY), 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 (watch Obama's hand as he says this, it moves like he's PLACING SOMETHING OUT THERE (bait)) and I also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime and then a few days later....."
This was bait. He knew Romney was prepared to make the claim that he didn't call it a terror attack for two weeks and totally set up Romney to make the claim. That Candy Crowley actually set the record straight was just icing.
Now the reason you may think was to set the record straight, and on one level it was. But I propose a more fundamental reason and that was to expose a BIG lie with strong emotional underpinnings and that's exactly what happened. ONE HUMONGOUS LIE EXPOSED with emotional resonance and everything else is easily dismissed. To have that happen NOW in front of a huge audience on national TV with 3 weeks to go...well, you do the math.
THAT'S why this moment is so, so important. And I'm pretty sure it was totally set up by the Obama team. Absolutely brilliant.
It's the BIG one. Now EVERYTHING IS SUSPECT.