HILLARY CLINTON did this week what all Cabinet members are supposed to do when the boss starts catching heat — she took one for the team.
But don’t expect the secretary of state’s announcement that she’s taking responsibility for last month’s deadly assault in Libya to douse the continuing firestorm over what the Obama administration knew and when it knew it.
Indeed, expect Mitt Romney and President Obama to wrestle over this question in next week’s third and final presidential debate, which will focus on foreign policy. Both candidates should cut through the fog of politics and help Americans understand what happened.
On Wednesday, both men touched on the Sept. 11 slayings of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. But much of the attention during the second presidential debate centered around timing: When did Mr. Obama call the murders an act of terror, as opposed to a spontaneous attack triggered by an anti-Muslim video posted on YouTube.
Mr. Romney charged that “it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.” The president bristled at the idea that his administration had played politics with the attack. He called the suggestion “offensive.”
According to politifact.org, which has far more credibility on this matter than debate moderator Candy Crowley of CNN, Mr. Romney’s comment is “half true.”
Politifact pointed out that the president said on Sept. 12 that “no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation.” However, on Sept. 16, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said that “we do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.”
“It wasn’t until Sept. 21 that everyone in the administration as a whole stated publicly that the attack was planned and executed by a terrorist group,” the Pulitzer-prize winning fact-checkers reported.
A far bigger question is how well the administration is protecting this nation’s interests abroad. If it can’t keep its own ambassadors safe, there needs to be a change.
An investigation that’s underway will ultimately determine what happened in Benghazi and whether requests for enhanced security were rejected or ignored. This is important for voters to know before Nov. 6.
The security of Americans serving aboard ultimately is the president’s responsibility, not Ms. Clinton’s.