A lot of Americans need to see Hillary claim the victory that Benghazi is for her .. and if your first reaction to that statement is “hunh?” you’re part of that group.
When Benghazi first happened, the Republicans saw it as ‘Obama’s (and Clinton’s) Katrina’. They immediately went to work trying to wring out as much political capital from it as possible. They started a hearing to suss out the career-ending mistake(s) that Clinton ‘had to have made’ in Benghazi. They found nothing.
So they launched another investigation. Then they launched another, and another, and another. By 2016, they now have 9{?} hearings and tens (hundreds?) of millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars and thousands of hours looking for that horrid, damning Hillary mistake.
They found nothing
After 4 years of playing Pin the tail on Benghazi, there is only one explanation for why they haven’t been able to find anything on Clinton. There’s only one conclusion to draw from that failure.
There was nothing to find
To put this another way: Clinton’s reaction to the disaster and tragedy that was Benghazi was entierely competent.
So, why would the Republicans put so much energy into investigating a disaster that was competently responded to? My suggestion is that they were blinded, primarily, by two things:
- Bush was incompetent, and
- Obama is black.
(yep, I’m drawing the race card).
Bush was incompetent
When bush was elected as president, many of the people he gave appointments to were best buds and/or people who he owed debts to. They got those appointments irrespective of whether they had the background to handle them competently. (some were, many weren’t). The result was that, when .. stuff .. hit the fan, many of Bush’s appointees responded badly. They expected the same from Clinton.
Obama is black.
The problem with Obama being black is that there are some people in the Republican party who were so blindly racist that they couldn’t wrap their minds around the fact that ‘a black man’ could do as competent a job as his white predecessor (even one as feckless as Bush). This is an additive effect to the point above. Since Bush had placed a large number of incompetent appointees, they figured that pretty much all of Obama’s appointees would be incompetent — including Clinton.
Clinton is completely competent.
The problem with the above presumption is that Obama — being the first black president — knew that he would be allowed no quarter if he, or one of his appointees, made a big mistake. As a result, Obama knew that he could only give appointments to the most eminently capable appointees, and Clinton was one of those.
Clinton didn’t get the appointment as Secretary of State because she was on good behavior after she lost. Obama appointed her because Clinton was eminently competent for the job. I don’t think that Republican’s ever fully understood this fact. As a result, when Benghazi (pretty much literally) blew up, many republicans presumed that Clinton had to have made blunders. They started an inquiry and waited for the blunders show up. They didn’t. So they figured that they hadn’t looked properly. They started another inquiry … and another.. and another. as of the summer of 2016, they ended their ninth (??) congressional inquiry into Benghazi. They found nothing. .. or more specifically, (( insert a suitably chastised sentence from a recent congressional report here )).
If there was something to find, they would have found it.
Let’s get serious here. These nine congressional inquiries were not just for the fun of it. They took place because the republicans wanted desperately to find the mistake(s) that (they presumed) Hillary had made around Benghazi. If there were blunders to find they would have found it. TO put it the other way: If Clinton had been in any way incompetent in her handling of Benghaze, THe republicans would have found proof of that by now. Or to put it another way, the only conclusion that could be made from the r=Republican’s abject failure to find evidence of Clinton’s incompetence in Benghazi is that Clinton’s handling of Benghazi was completely competent.
It’s necessary to claim the victory.
A few days ago I answered a question on the ‘Quora.com’ question and answer website.ss
Did Hillary order the stand-down in Benghazi? Is Obama protecting her?
My answer was pretty simple: (paraphrased)
“No”, and “He didn’t have to respectively”. The fact that the REpblicans couldn’t find evidence of wrongdoing or incompetence in 9 hearings over 4 years is proof that the situation was handled properly and competently.
The problem is that the question was asked.. There are a lot of people out there who still presume that the Republicans wouldn’t have put so much work into Benghazi if Clinton hadn’t handled it improperly (wrong!)
Disabusing people of that presumption would pull a linchpin from the Republican’s disinformation campaign against Hillary, and make a big difference in improving her image.