Tuesday, September 11, 2012 was a bleak day for the United States. Mobs in Egypt and Libya seized our embassy and consulate respectively. In Cairo, they desecrated our flag and replaced it with the black flag of Islam. In Libya, they burned the consulate to the ground and murdered our ambassador along with several others.
The Obama administration’s response? It tweeted. And it tweeted embarrassingly vile and weak things.
Barack Obama remained silent as the day unfolded. Well, other than an interview with DJ Laz, he remained silent.
Late in the evening, Mitt Romney sent out a strong statement condemning the US embassy in Cairo’s tweets and the administration’s awful handling of the crisis.
Mitt Romney’s statement finally provoked a reaction from the Obama administration. The administration said it was “shocked” that the Romney campaign was “politicizing” the situation.
The actual violence and the desecration of our flag, on the anniversary of 9-11, provoked no reaction from the Obama camp. Mitt Romney’s calling them a “disgrace,” though — that brought out the rage. The Obama administration, as some pointed out last night on twitter, was more outraged by Romney’s words than by the attack on sovereign US soil.
At some point, the Obama administration realized it was in a crisis. The US embassy was tossed under the bus, and it started deleting its foolish tweets.
During the 2008 primary, the Hillary Clinton campaign released an ad that highlighted Barack Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience. It asked that if the 3 am crisis call comes in, is he equipped to answer it?
The 3 am crisis call came in during the middle of the day on Tuesday, and in the aftermath this much is clear: Neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton were ready to take that call. Tuesday was an abject failure. America looks diminished and unsure of herself, in a region where uncertainty invites violence and war.
Pointing all of that out is not “politicizing.” It’s just speaking the truth.
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