The self-appointed fact-checkers are going nuts over last night's exchange between Obama and Romney and the interjection by COW Candy Crowley, as reported here slightly over an hour ago. AP's Calvin Woodward has transcripts (I guess) and has published these quotes.
Speaking in the Rose Garden, September 12th, the Prez said: “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.... [Ellipsis inserted by Woodward.] We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act.”
Last night: “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 [Walt's emphasis] was an act of terror and I also said that we’re going to hunt down those who committed this crime.”
Woodward's comment: ...others in [Obama's] administration repeated for several days its belief that the violence stemmed from protests over an American-made video ridiculing Islam. It took almost a month before officials acknowledged that those protests never occurred. And Romney is right in arguing that the administration has yet to explain why it took so long for that correction to be made or how it came to believe that the attack evolved from an angry demonstration.
Walt adds: I guess it depends on what you think "this" means. It doesn't appear that Obama referred specifically to the Benghazi attack. Which was Romney's point. So was Obama lying last night? It appears the answer -- like Obama himself -- is neither black nor white.
Further reading: "Did Candy Crowley's moderating go too far?", from today's Globe and Mail.
Here'w what Jennifer Rubin wrote in today's Washington Post:
ReplyDeleteObama still wrong on Libya; Crowley blows it
In what surely was one of the weirdest incidents in a presidential debate, CNN’s Candy Crowley egregiously sided with President Obama on his false remarks on Libya, was repeatedly and decisively fact-checked post-debate as wrong (somewhere between “mostly wrong” and “pants on fire” in my book) and then backed away from her own incorrect assertion. As was the case in the vice presidential debate, the biggest story may be the after-the-debate tumult over White House misrepresentations on Libya.