Last night Jay Leno became the first of the late-night comedians to work criticism of President Obama’s handling of Benghazi into his monologue.
After the Benghazi riffs, which are at about the one minute mark into the clip above, Leno also mocks the Lena Dunham ad that compares voting to losing one’s virginitiy: “The ad says your first time shouldn’t be with just anybody. It should be with a great guy who really understands women. But on the other hand, if it is your first time, you might want to do it with someone who doesn’t need eight years to get the job done. That’s all I’m saying.”
So Benghazi has found its way into the late-night talk shows. Leno’s writers tend to go for the safest jokes; if they see Benghazi as something that people understand enough to criticize Obama about, that’s a good sign that it’s getting past the mainstream media’s active silence on it.
Over on the Washington Post‘s editorial page today, seven weeks after the attack, David Ignatius is troubled by the turns the story has taken. Ignatius asks about the delays and the “stand down” order, and about the wisdom of relying on Libyan militia troops to defend the U.S. consulate. Unfortunately, he asks no questions about why the Obama administration went out of its way to mislead Americans regarding the nature of the attack itself. But let’s appreciate baby steps.
More: White House May Have Told Counterterrorism Group to Stand Down on Benghazi Rescue
But let’s appreciate baby steps.
Watching the mass media apparatus abuse the truth is like watching Thalidomide babies…the steps are agonizing and tortuous.
Baby steps of a story that had its legs cut out from under it. That the Obama administration strangled at birth. That Susan Rice threw out with the bath water.
You can’t shame people who have no shame. The mass media conspired to crush this baby’s windpipe. They murdered the truth. And have been, for some time now. In every scandal in this Lawless Presidency. They should hang as traitors.
Just publish the time and place where we can bring miles of rope for the Maggot Stream Media hanging party.. I think some gasoline, propane and dental drills would complete the tool kit.
I’ve replaced the word Journalist with Journalass in my vocabulary.
“David Ignatius is troubled by the turns the story has taken. Ignatius asks about the delays and the “stand down” order, and about the wisdom of relying on Libyan militia troops to defend the US consulate.”
Really? I’m no foreign policy or national security expert, but if you asked me beforehand about relying on Libyans to provide security for our ambassador, after I got through laughing, I’d have said “no.” And that’s without our intelligence community chiming in, or the British MI-6 warnings.
Yep, everything leading up to the Benghazi attack sets off the WTF alarm: Using Libyan militia. Denials for additional security measures. Stevens doing whatever in an unsecured area on Sep 11 of all days.
No need to be an intelligence expert. The whole thing stinks. At the very best, it’s ineptitude. At the very worst, it’s something much more tragic and treacherous.
But, but, but…we HELPED them! We got rid of Ghadaffi! They know we’re their FRIENDS! Why shouldn’t we trust them?
/sarc
Rush has the explanation.
They live in a faculty lounge fantasy world.
Ghadaffi is deposed. obama is beloved. So Libya is fixed. There is no need for Amerian security. The loving Libyans, so grateful for the American genius’ good deed will take care of everything.
Likewise for jobs. They hold a two hour conference with top libwit thinkers like Thomas Friedman. The brilliant minds make 3 recommendations. Problem solved. Move on to health care.
It’s exactly what they do. The egos are so immense; the real-world experience is so miniscule; they actually think that their brain farts can cure the most intransigent problems of the world. They don’t even need to measure the results or do any followup. They can’t imagine the possiblility of failure.
We would be better off with the real mafia in charge. At least that organization follows-up; and they know how to measure the results.
Well said. The odd thing about this administration is that so many do understand WHY it is a disaster and yet so many think that it is actually succeeding. It’s like half the country is living in an alternate universe. We are on the receiving end of artillery fire and half the country thinks it is a planned fireworks display.
My response would have been a sarcastic one. “Did you make sure everyone you asked to serve there signed a suicide mission agreement?”
When can we stop relying on hostile host countries (and all Muslim host countries are hostile, by their own definition) to provide “security” for US assets?
That’s why we have a military – to protect US soil, fercryinoutloud!
Too many people are not willing to pursue the truth. I posted a facebook link on the first day that it came out that the White House was told 2 hours into the attack that it was Ansar-al-Sharia. I had a one word commentary, TREASON.
Not one single comment out of 71 friends.
Mr. Ignatius also commented, “The Obama administration needs to level with the country about why it made its decisions.” An article in the SF Chronicle tried, sort of, to explain it’s lack of substantive coverage, saying in essence that it’s the job of the MSM.
True, that’s just a drop in the ocean, but it seems that there may be more as I noted here.
Here’s my question:
Will Benghazi break down ROMNEY’S wall of silence?
Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell were brothers in astonishment last night over Romney’s failure to attack on this while Obama drifts back up in his favorability ratings and re-tightens the race in his favor.
Yeah, but sure, it’s impeachment-worthy. Four years of Biden/Fill-in-the Blank.
“Will Benghazi break down ROMNEY’S wall of silence?”
No, because:
- the economy, not foreign policy, is Romney’s strength and
- the economy, not foreign policy, will decide the election.
Any amount of time that Romney spends on foreign policy diverts time and effort away from victory. He can’t win via foreign policy but he can lose by focusing on secondary issues.
Benghazi is a big loser for Obama but it’s only a push for Romney.
Obama is quietly recovering his popularity thanks to Sandy, while Romney is sitting out an opportunity to point out Obama’s mendacity and secretiveness. Romney doesn’t have to distribute a 20-page booklet or hold the mother of all briefings; all he has to do is say “The President is hiding something from us” and “Four brave Americans died while the President (or his National Security Council) watched in real-time.”
Romney’s debate themes were:
Debate 1: you failed
Debate 2: you don’t matter
Debate 3: you’ve lost, here’s what I’m going to do.
Any amount of time that Romney spends talking about Obama is wasted time because, again, Romney is talking about what he’s going to do.
I also fail to understand why you think standing amidst death and destruction helps Obama in the least. He can talk, talk, talk but people without power are still without power, people without homes are still without homes, flooded subways are still flooded, and at the end of his speech people are not materially better off than when he started. The lasting visual is Obama with destruction in the backdrop. (I will add that there’s nothing that he can do, the problem is that he wants to appear like the recovery depends on him when he’s irrelevant to the process.)
Chris is right.
Anything Romney says about Benghazi will be used by Pravda to imply he is a shoot-from-the-hip cowboy and move the election from the economy to his “lack of judgement”.
Saying nothing, leaves the issue on the table and prevents pravda from making it about Romney.
Saying anything would be a huge risk. It would have some upside but much more downside.
I agree with Chris . . . and did others notice that Zer0 used a totally non-idiomatic expression—I think he speaks English like an ESL person—to encourage “folks”? It sounds like he’s setting up the American people to scr*w them again, like he has for the past four years.
He said, “We are going to continue to push as hard as we can to make sure that power is up throughout the region and obviously this is mostly a local responsibility and the private utilities are going to have to LEAN FORWARD. . . . There is no excuse for inaction at this point. I want every agency to LEAN FORWARD and to make sure we are getting the resources where they need — where they’re need [sic] as quickly as possible. I want to repeat my message to the federal government, no bureaucracy, no red tape, get resources where they’re needed as fast as possible, as hard [sic] as possible. . . .”
Then, when I Googled “lean forward”, I learned that it’s MSNBC’s slogan. One CANNOT make up this stuff!
Among other glaring deficiencies, this superman can’t even speak proper English. Good grief!
I’ve grown so sick of hearing his voice; I now mute the TV whenever he’s speaking.
I remain hopeful it will become a major issue either tomorrow or Friday. Newt has said that a “very reliable U.S. Senator” – his words not mine – has told him (Newt) that two major networks have the goods on Dear Leader (video of the Situation Room with Dear Leader, Panetta, NSA Donilon, and Gen. Dempsey aka: my favorite martian). Well, that’s great, we already know that people have the goods, but when are they going to publicly release them to the rest of us? Newt believes that by the weekend both Benghazi and more green energy corruption will be major issues on the national stage.
I hope he is correct.
REMEMBER BENGHAZI!
I wouldn’t bet on it unless one of those nets is Fox which is the only halfway honest news channel out there.
Great…Benghazi Tragedy is now a laff riot, a light-hearted romp. Not to slag Jay, but it’s just not funny. Was this tack suggested by Axelrod as a means of downplaying the disaster?
Agreed. I’m not sure what it means when Leno starts talking about something. Maybe he wants us to just lighten up, heh, heh, heh…
There are a lot of people who skip past politics even if it gets wall-to-wall coverage — the same way almost all viewers end up skipping past campaign commercials no matter how numerous they are — but who watch Leno every night. Hence conventional wisdom has it that Leno’s reference to Benghazi is very bad news for Obama, because all Leno’s politically unconnected viewers are now likely to google and read about Benghazi in order to understand the jokes. Even if they don’t read about it, they still get the message that Obama messed up in a big way.
So in effect this is Leno telling his fans that it’s OK to vote against Obama.
Yes,to the rest of the world it is a laugh a minute,the biggest,sadly to say perpetrated on the Americans people by their own government.How many versions of the story are there already?Who is writing the script?Must have a fertile mind!Everything,but the truth!Just stay tune for another episode of this endless saga.In tonight episode…..
The magnitude of this coverup is truly frightening, even though it’s Halloween.
What type of executive order can Obama have issued that completely shuts down information flow from the W/H, State, Pentagon, CIA, FBI, major commands and all their spokespeople, plus most of the MSM?
If it was just politically motivated, wouldn’t somebody squeal? The situation must be much scarier than is being conveyed!
how about, “Are you better off now than you were 4 solar panel companies ago?”
The cover-up is so complete that even conservative media are now ignoring Benghazi.
We are?
Greta sure isn’t. The woman is obsessed with it, which is a good thing because she probably has some influence with a lot of moderates, since she usually goes out of her way not to take right-wing positions. Some people who discount Hannity won’t disount her.
Romney needs to win clean.
He said the right thing on September 12 in response to the US Cairo Embassy statements on September 11. He can stand by those words and he is on high ground.
Never apologize for American free speech.
Romney honored the four men we lost by honoring their country in a way Obama has not yet grasped.
Good insight about the Leno jokes list and getting past the MSM blockade.
Sociopath – A person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience. Remind you of any White House personnel who aided and abetted the Benghazi murders?
Conscience is what the Dems don’t have,although they had their own conscience in none other Ted Kennedy the “conscience of the senate”.Anyway,around the world we are waiting for the election’s result.To see if the loons and criminals are reelected.We also will know what is the percentage of loons and criminals.If Obama is reelected we are assurred of four more years of real fun.
One day, the archives will be available for all to see, including images taken by the drone. I hope Obama and his staff will be still alive to see that happening.
Unless the Queen of the Thighs sends Sandy Burglar in there again
If Romney tries to say anything about Benghazi the MSM will distort it and accuse him of using 4 dead Americans in a cold hearted tactic to win the election.
I do not believe the MSM is going to investigate this story. They have no intention of seeing their boss not win re-election. Instead, expect to see a flood of rumors, BS, outright lies, disinformation, etc. The intent is to cover the truth with so much BS no one will believe a nything that is said about
Benghazi. Obama will then give a speech decrying the politization of the attack and blame Fox News and Romney. The MSM will join him in condemning Fox and Romney and hopefully Obama will ride the victimhood train over the finish line.
Nothing the MSM has done leads me to believe they are any less than exactly the pond scum that would do this.
Voting for Obama IS like having sex for the first time. The only problem is, it would be like having sex for the first time but with someone with a sexually transmitted disease. Talk about morning after regret. I think A LOT of people who voted for Obama in 2008 know this feeling well and are not about to go through it again.
It’s about time. Ignatius is not yet intellectually or emotionally honest with himself about Pres. Obama’s response, but perhaps he has seen something that lets him know what’s coming. David Ignatius spent his time early on in the Benghazi story focused on Mitt Romney’s response, as if that was the story.
Does anyone have information on whether US assets were evacuating other European consulates out of Benghazi on 9/11/12, while not helping out our ambassador?
The Brits and the Red Cross had already gotten the hell out of town, sometime previously, i’m thinking a week maybe, iirc.
What a gift to the ‘pubs. Here Mr. O had an opportunity to do-a-Grenada in real-time (even if it turned into a Desert-1 that wouldn’t have been clear until after the election), won the (grudging) respect of the grunts, and given the undecideds pause even before the debates (if only just a wag-the-dog).
So what does he and his team do? An own goal at best. At worst he makes Nixon look like a great president. Or perhaps his own team set him up – knowing what another four years would do to the country.
A tragedy – those things we do to ourselves wittingly.
And we still have an American citizen in jail for having the temerity to speak his mind – and a member of a persecuted religious minority to boot. A sad day for America. Granted, only the elites in the mid-east have internet access sufficient to download pictures (to say nothing of the-jihadist in the street that would need a years’ salary for one month’s data plan for a smartphone), much less video – so this is likley (just) another AQ production in its entirety – anyone that would shoot from behind women and children wouldn’t hesitate to commit blasphemy to make the great satan roll-over-and-beg on the anniversary of the their greatest victory – esp. since it was blessed by their own imam – where ends justify any means.
What were they chanting in Cairo? “We are all Osama, Obama..”
Did you see the STARTLING NY Post Cover page last week with Benghazi story teasers?
Do you have friends or relatives who are poorly informed & not worried about it? I am ashamed to say that I do, but I am forwarding this cover image to their facebook or twitter sites. It’s a 2-second visual and is bound to raise questions in the minds of the clueless, particularly the second headline.
It shows a photo of a somber President Obama & these headlines:
Headline 1: “US drone witnessed attack on Benghazi”
Headline 2: ‘THEY WATCHED THEM DIE’
Headline 3: “Military slow to respond”
Google TUMBLR new-york-post-cover-for-sunday-october-21-2012
In reality the left wing media a.k.a MSM, not only damaging itself it also doing no favor to Obama by trying to coverup his massive failing as commander in chief. Sooner rather than latter the floodgates will open and all the rats in the WH and MSM will have no place hide. Benghazi will forever tarnish Hussein O as the Anti American president.
4 Died. Obama lied. His Minions Denied. The O-Press Complied. This coverup is the resut of an arrogant President placing a higher priority on an appearance of normalcy than the security of Americans. After all, Obama is all about appearances – an inflated ego in an empty suit supported by a media propoganda machine. And the spew from the machine is effective (even Obama believes his own bulls**t) but the truth will come out. And the media must pay for their role ideceivng the American people. How? The only recourse I see is BOYCOTT – let the propagandists and their sponsors know that we will not watch theior stations, we willnot buy their products, we will not view their ads. Our only hammer is economic – boycott the bas***ds and choke them to death.
With multiple orders to “Stand down” instead of assisting, and a General being relieved of command in 30 seconds after disobeying the unlawful order do not assist, it is intuitively obvious that the White House wanted the attack to proceed unhindered. It certainly looks as if the Ambassador was to be kidnapped and traded for the blind sheik, giving Obama his October surprise war-creds and Valerie her trophy for Muslim Brotherhood accolades. Treasonous baysterds.