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Is the Obama Administration Increasingly Putting Politics Before People in Libya Response?

Oct. 15, 2012 6:11am Mytheos Holt

When Obama campaign surrogate Stephanie Cutter first made her by-all-accounts bizarre statement that the only reason anyone was talking about the Obama administration’s response to the attacks in Benghazi was because of the Republican ticket, many observers probably brushed it off as the kind of one-off campaign surrogate gaffe that often happens the era of the 24 hour news cycle.

That was before the Obama campaign made that argument the centerpiece of their response.

It’s difficult to recall a moment in Presidential history when the response by a sitting administration to a major foreign policy crisis has evinced so little curiosity about what actually happened, so much indifference to inconvenient evidence, and such a nakedly political view of what is, properly speaking, a life-or-death issue for American diplomats, intelligence agents and soldiers. Faced with a major attack on America’s strategic assets and diplomatic actors, the administration has focused almost entirely on redistributing blame from its leaders onto other people.

Where this becomes truly bizarre is the fact that, with the exception of the accusations against Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, the very people being blamed are the people actively responsible for pursuing America’s interests abroad. That is to say that rather than take the word of its own diplomats and intelligence sources about the inadequacy of its response, the administration has instead blamed those people for that response.

David Axelrod’s appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace today shows this problem clearly, as Axelrod attempted to lay the blame for the administration’s failure to preempt the Libya attack squarely at the door of the intelligence community, and the State Department. In answer to a question about Vice President Joe Biden’s demonstrably false argument that the embassy in Libya hadn’t requested more security, Axelrod argued that the embassy’s requests had gone unheard in the White House, even if they had been received by the State Department, as Red Alert Politics notes:

“There’s no doubt that some of these matters went into the security department at the state security agency at the State Department, but it didn’t come to the white house and that what is the vice president was responding to,” Axelrod claimed.

Axelrod tried to shift blame off of the President, saying that he was in contact with his national security advisers during his campaign trip to Las Vegas throughout the evening of the attack and said he was only responsible for what happened in the sense that he’s responsible for everything that happens to the United States because he is the President. But in the specific case of the communication breakdown that led to the death of U.S. abassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the State Department is at fault Axelrod said, before craftily claiming that this issue isn’t about “blaming” anyone.

In other words, the State Department willfully ignored the problem, and the White House never heard about it. Similarly, Axelrod claimed that the entire Obama administration thought that the Youtube video “The Innocence of Muslims” had been responsible for the attacks, in flat contradiction of what the official story from the State Department has been. Again, from Red Alert:

Axelrod also tried to rewrite history by claiming that no one ever said that the attack was not in response to a vile YouTube video of the Prophet Muhammad.

“It isn’t us or anyone else who is suggesting that that’s what the intelligence was at the time,” he said. ”For example, when Secretary Rice, Ambassador Rice appeared on your program and other programs, anyone would have said the same thing that she said because that was the intelligence we were receiving,” he claimed, pointing out that CIA Director Ethan Klapper and other officials at the State Department were on the record as having made similar comments.

But as Wallace pointed out, Axelrod’s statement contradicts the State Department’s claims from last week that it was never State’s opinion that the video caused the siege.

At least one of these dodges – that the State Department didn’t pass on the information about Libya needing more security – is difficult to prove wrong without being a fly on the wall in the White House. There is a distinct air of “he said, she said” (literally, given that the two competing stories come from President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) about that part of the mess.

However, the question of the video being used as an explanation despite apparently not being accepted as legitimate by the State Department is more problematic. More than a few generally sympathetic journalists have scratched their heads about why the administration sought to make this explanation so dominant. Most of the explanations that have been offered have boiled down to political calculation rather than earnest confusion.

And then there are the more unsympathetic explanations, such as that offered by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) today:

They’re trying to sell a narrative, quite frankly, that the Mid-East– the wars are receding and that al-Qaeda has been dismantled. And to admit that our embassy was attacked by al-Qaida operatives, and [in] Libya leading from behind didn’t work, I think undercuts that narrative. They never believed the media would investigate, Congress was out of session, and this caught up with them. I think they’ve been misleading us, but it finally caught up with them.[...]

Either they’re misleading the American people, or incredibly incompetent. There was no way with anybody looking at all that you could believe five days after the attack that it was based on a riot that never occurred… This is the same administration that leaks every detail of classified operations that are successful… When something goes bad, they deny, they deceive, and they delay. And the truth is, we’re not safer. Al-Qaeda is alive– Bin Laden may be dead–Al-Qaeda is alive, and they’re counter-attacking throughout the entire region.

Under normal circumstances, Graham’s uncharitable reading of the situation could be at least partially chalked up to partisanship. But unlike those circumstances, his accusations have the advantage of being backed up by facts from the administration’s own Department of State, which has been aggressively pushing back on the “blame the State Department” narrative currently being propagated by the Obama campaign. A recent piece in the Daily Mail suggest that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton herself might be leading the charge in refuting this narrative:

The State Department has said that it never believed the September 11th attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was the result of a protest over an anti-Islam movie – directly contracting the rest of the Obama administration.

By trying to distance her department from the inept and deceptive handling of the Benghazi attack, which left U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials dead, Hillary Clinton could help herself politically for a 2016 presidential run.

A dramatic new account by the State Department reveals that Stevens was locked inside a ‘safe room’ choking to death from diesel-heavy smoke as the building around him burned to the ground.

Alongside him was a security guard, tasked with the impossible choice between staying in the deadly room – or facing the rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns outside.

Eventually the guard slipped through the window – and was cut down by the grenades.

No-one saw the ambassador alive again – another agent tried desperately to enter the safe-room, but could not find him anywhere.

The State Department also held a conference call with reporters where it aggressively pushed its own version of the story, the transcript of which was posted on Powerline.

This obvious gulf between the White House and the State Department has prompted suspicion even from the President’s defenders. The New York Times, a paper often described by conservatives as one of the more biased in America, has posted a note from their public editor dissenting from the paper’s decision not to put the Libya story on the front page:

I believe that the Libya hearing story belonged on The Times’s front page. It had significant news value, regardless of the political maneuvering that is inevitable with less than four weeks to go until the election. And more broadly, there is a great deal of substance on this subject that warrants further scrutiny.

I can’t think of many journalistic subjects that are more important right now, or more deserving of aggressive reporting.

Fortunately for those with the same proclivities as the Times’ public editor, and unfortunately for the administration, the “aggressive” reporting that has been done by the likes of Eli Lake at the Daily Beast shows that the truth is increasingly at loggerheads with the Obama campaign’s version of events. Yet when faced with a serious question of internal dissension from their own State Department, the Obama administration and the campaign have been united in their apparent desire to change the subject to Mitt Romney’s supposed exploitation of this issue for political gain. This despite the fact that Romney himself has precisely zero power over what happens in Libya, and his criticism increasingly is echoed by the mainstream press.

Even to a sympathetic observer, one would be hard pressed to understand how this comes off as anything less than a misreading of priorities by the administration. A United States ambassador is dead, and Al Qaeda is resurgent in a region of the world where one of America’s most prominent recent humanitarian interventions took place. Surely the administration should be focused on getting the answers, rather than blaming the criticism on the opposition party. Combine this odd set of priorities with the administration’s persistent attempts to make the State Department and the intelligence community its scapegoats, rather than adhering to the age-old Presidential adage that “the buck stops here,” and you face a potentially ugly conclusion.

In the Obama administration, politics may just be a higher priority than looking after the people who ensure America’s interests are served abroad.

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Comments (65)

HerrZauberer
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 9:23am
Whoa! There’s an article here!?! I thought the headline was rhetorical!

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- DeOppressoLiber
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 9:58am
  Here is the big question when was the Joint Special Operations Task Force – Horn of Africa (JSOTF-HOA) notified and if they where at all. I think they have a Crisis Response Element (CRE) on stand by just for one of these incidents. Check the command logs, it will all be noted in the OPSCEN logs.
  
  Report this comment
- rs9
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 2:55pm
  boy that David A#s Hole Rod can lie at the spped of sound
  
  Report this comment
- NHwinter
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 4:47pm
  The Indomitable Englishman, Pat Condell, does it again…doesn’t mince his words and tells it as it is
  
  without fear or hesitation….!
  
  http://europenews.dk/en/node/58928
  
  Everyone in our government should watch this video. This is how the American people feel about Islam!!! Excellent video. For those of you on FB, please post this video.
  
  Report this comment
- PilgrimStuckInBizarroWorld
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:56pm
  They all went out and lie about the video for over a week! Once you change your story you either lied then or you are lying now!
  OMG
  R&R
  
  Report this comment
listeninginVT
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 9:17am
I learned a new word yesterday, what does it mean when the gov’t spouts ‘sustainability’; here is a hint, it’s a ‘hidden’ word, like progressive. It is another ‘path’ of indoctrination and ‘change’ BHO wanted to bring America, through the EPA and Colleges, over 600 at last count.
I mention it with this article as the dishonesty, lies, deceit, trickery and hidden agenda with this Liberal Monster is even worse than we knew.

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- ConstitunalAmerican
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 12:12pm
  You are absolutely right ListeninginVT, and scary. Sustainability is used throughout the many speeches made by Obama and its very clear now what their true agenda has been, long before the 2008 election. These “progressives” have infiltrated every aspect of our lives from indoctrination in our schools, demeaning of our church teachings, union aggression in the workplace, dependence on government, obamacare, to unworkable green energy. Government Sustainibilty to be the answer for All.
  Is this what you want for yourself and family?
  
  Report this comment
- NHwinter
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 4:48pm
  Sustainable is also another word for UN Agenda 21.
  
  Report this comment
- PilgrimStuckInBizarroWorld
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:58pm
  The special on Obama’s energy policy that air on Fox last night was one everyone needs to see.
  
  Report this comment
LOJ
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 9:15am
Sure they are putting politics ahead of human life. And Axelrod tells Wallace to calm down!

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Rickfromillinois
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 8:55am
I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED, that the WH would try to blame somebody else for this. (sarcasm) Senator Graham is wrong when he said that the administration is either misleading the American people OR are incredibly incompetent. Instead of using the word OR he should have said AND. Then ratlike Axelrod goes out and first blames the Romney campaign for anyone even talking about it, and then claims that the State Department and the Intelligence community either gave the WH false information or withheld information. Does this sound like leadership? Blame others for the problem and blame others for even TALKING about the problem? We have a narcissistic juvenile leading the country.

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- biohazard23
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 10:56am
  This cartoon sums up this regime’s official policy pretty nicely.
  
  http://childhoodrelived.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/family_circus_notme.gif
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 1:00pm
  The Obama Regime lies to us in Libya just like they lie to us on Syria.
  
  New Western Intelligence: Syrian rebels don’t have the numbers to win
  
  http://debka.com/article/22440/New-W-intelligence-Syrian-rebels-don’t-have-the-numbers-to-win
  
  Report this comment
HKS
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 8:34am
Axlerod out spinning Obama’s crap yesterday looked more pathetic than Rice did a few weeks ago. These Commies are just unbelievable. They are an embarrassment to the American people, thinking they are that stupid.

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- ConstitunalAmerican
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 11:24am
  This administration thinks the American people are stupid and hold obama up to sainthood that we would believe anything they say. Well, not so Axelrod!! You all have been doing your best in dumbing-down this country, but it will Never work with the majority. The State Dept is equally responsible as Obama for not standing up to the evils and incompetence of this administration. Is a future presidential run that important over the safety of four Americans in Libya?? The people of this country will not forget. So keep your silence, but we know!!
  
  Report this comment
doncski
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 8:30am
O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A,
O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A,
O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A,
O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A,
O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A,
O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A,
O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A,
O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A, O-Blame-A,

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conservativemom99
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 8:17am
If nothing else, this has been an EXCELLENT exposure of how truly cold our president is. He was acquainted with the ambassador, and likely the others that were killed…he appointed the ambassador…and had no care about protecting them and then when the worst happened, had NO problem placing blame elsewhere, meanwhile, never showing a lick of sadness…instead trotting off to Vegas to raise funds. And the coverup continues to this day…
TRULY a very sick man…where’s his conscience?

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oxycontinxx
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 8:04am
the “politics FIRST” strategy was begun the day obammy was sworn into office. and its only gotten worse since then !!!

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- forthepeople
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 9:32am
  took me 3 years , much work to get off Oxycontin , problem with this good pain reliever is one is never enough, then two and three … Bam your a legal heroin addict . Get off them with Suboxone , then use over the counter pain reliever along with as much exercise as one can do .
  
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bigbear_awake
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:59am
so whos fault is it about the u-tube video the ones who made it
OR obama, rice, clinton for political purposes and to get a uprise for obamas M LAW???
they are the only ones responsible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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guns-an-bibles
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:46am
Is the Obama Administration Increasingly Putting Politics Before People in Libya Response?

duh!

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Gonzo
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:41am
Obama skipped his intelligence briefings for weeks on end leading up to the attack. He had more important things to do like fund raise, campaign and I suppose pass out free cell phones. You can’t tell me that none of those skipped briefs had any information on the situation in Libya. The man at the top has to pay attention and lead!

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- yougottabekidding
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:56am
  They don’t skip expensive vacations on the tax payers.
  It’s like a drunk accidently locked in the bar, He’s going to get everything he can while the opportunity
  predents itself and the blazes with everything else!
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:58am
  GONZO, Yep, this is the person our White House rushes to assist, but if you are left in a truly precarious situation, best of luck!
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio
  
  Report this comment
Fla.Patriot
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:33am
Regardless of how this plays out, the fact remains that Odumbass has desimated our intelligence community. Intel is only as good as your assets. By announcing BinLadens death IMMEDIATELY after the fact, any Intel that was gained at the compound (and it was substantial) was rendered useless. Then to add insult to injury he threw our asset under the bus. Who is going to work with such a low life regime? To call his foreign policy a disaster is an epic understatement. It becomes clear that our so called President is working for our enemies

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- nzkiwi
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:39am
  Yes, another inescapeable “ugly conclusion”.
  
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- PaulreveresDarknight
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 9:31am
  Ditto. I want to cry at what they are doing to Our nation. Can you imagine how Weak we look.
  
  Report this comment
Yaya2
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:31am
How any of this administration can close their eyes and sleep while the results of their actions cost 4lives is way beyond me! They are starting to eat each other as this mess implodes. I hope Romney calls Obama on this at the debate tomorrow nite…no more Mr.Nice guy!

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nzkiwi
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:31am
The “ugly conclusion” is inescapable, and the evidence against Mr Obama and his administration just keeps mounting up…

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:27am
Of course the White House knew nothing of the request for more security in Libya, nor anything of what happened during the attack. Oddly, the only thing that came from the White House is exactly what did not happen. This equates to the Clinton White House not knowing about requests for armor and in particular armored personnel carriers in 1993 Somalia. Amazingly this may come as a shock to many, but Nixon knew nothing of the Watergate break in until after fact. But, the 0bama story is like saying that Nixon never learned anything about it until he read about it in the newspaper. But, it really was that knowledge after the fact that lead to his covering for these men. It was the cover up that brought him down. But, Nixon’s bungling of this situation did not get anybody raped or killed.

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- nzkiwi
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:38am
  Speaking of reading it in the newspaper, RJ, the New York Times, which buried the story, is finally getting the kicking that they deserve…
  
  http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/why-wasnt-libya-hearing-on-page-a1-of-the-times/
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:54am
  NZKIWI, As they should, but this is nothing unusual coming from the NYT. You’d think that their senior editors have cabinet positions in DC.
  
  Report this comment
- RLTW
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 11:55am
  RJJINGADSDEN
  
  You are correct, Clinton and congress as a whole F’ed the military for over a decade. The 93 Somalia events identified the militaries need for armored vehicles yet nothing was done during the 8 yrs leading up to 911, and don’t forget Les Aspen’s denial of an AC-130 gunship
  
  Report this comment
blackfeather
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:17am
if you think it’s bad now…re-elect these morons and you will witness things your children will suffer from.

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Metallicat
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:11am
All are expendable for Obamas political ambitions. Obama is evil,and the fact that he will lie and kick dirt on dead Americans he put in harms way is proof. how desparate will he get this close to getting a second term to finish implementing his agenda? Its getting kinda scary what these progressives will do to retain power. I expect this election to be stolen on behalf of Obama,and if he was arrogant when he received his first mandate,he’ll take his second win as a mandate to rule by edict.

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bikerdogred1
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:00am
They want to be the hero in this and lying is just part of the game.

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blanco5
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 6:51am
Is that a trick question?

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RepubliCorp
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 6:48am
People died, Obama lied

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- pscully17
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:05am
  Doesn’t Susan rice work for Hillary Clinton, as ambassador to the UN under her Secretary of State department? Yes, yes she does!! So how does Hillary Clinton disavow the YOUTUBE VIDEO blame, when Susan rice, 5 days after they now say they knew within 24 hours that it was obviously and indisputably an attack, sans “spontaneous protests”…..its all criminally BS! These people need to be court marshalled!! Immediately!
  
  Report this comment
kickagrandma
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 6:41am
Does he/ do they lie even when they sleep?

The answer, of course, is YES.

he and everyone in his tiny, little kingdom put their agenda — not YOURS, LORD, or ours — before people, always.

And, so, GOD, we pray YOUR intervention on our behalf. We follow YOUR instructions to love our enemies and to pray for them (YOU know how hard this is, right?) We pray YOUR mercy and forgiveness on us all, LORD. Thank YOU for helping us be YOUR kids, right here, right now, shining
lights in the darkness of this administration. We pray on, LORD in YOUR HOLY and MIGHTY name, amen.

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rabblechat
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 6:40am
Ok set aside the issue of security before the attack.
This ambassador was under fire for 6 hours. They ( state dept and whitehouse) knew they needed help when they first came under attack that night. Why didnt they sent help after the fighr began? To ne this is this real crime; knowingly letting these Americans take fire for 6 hours! Heck in that time they coukd of dropped a whole MEU on deck! Surely they could of hit the area with cruise missles or fixed wing within an hour or two of the attack starting.
Why did they do nothing when they knew the needed help???

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- Metallicat
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 7:23am
  this thing stinks everywhere you look. I heard the ambassador requested a plane out of the country prior to the attack and they practically told him to buy a plane ticket. good luck getting to the airport! Pray they let you through customs! Also heard there was a Marine security team 40 miles away that could have been sent to react,but not sent. I think they didnt send the team because it would have escalated,and they are praying the press sweeps this under the rug. Meanwhile at European embassies,they are receiving new Chevy Volts courtesy of Obama (at taxpayer expense of course) to further the lie that he saved GM.
  
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- Metallicat
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 8:04am
  The Clintons with their vast knowledge of “Blackhawk down” situations,now know its better( politically) to let the cats eat the birds, than rescue the birds,and hope it all gets swept under the rug by a friendly press and a guillible public.
  
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- BonnieC3
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 9:09am
  When told the attack had started and the ambassador was “missing”… Obama went to bed?!!! You’re right, something stinks about this whole thing. I can’t help but come to the conclusion: Obama knew…
  
  Report this comment
Gary_K
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 6:38am
Come on, say it like it is….by saying barry soetoro is putting politics ahead of everything and everybody else is really saying that the gay/islamic/communist/frank m. davis jr aka barry soetoro aka barack obama is putting himself first.

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- kickagrandma
  Posted on October 15, 2012 at 6:45am
  Bingo!
  
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BurntHills
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 6:28am
obama cares about one thing: continuing his escalating dictatorship, period.

even if he does or does not rig the Nov 6th election, Congress should have him impeached by Jan 1st 2013.

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orionreplay6607
Posted on October 15, 2012 at 6:23am
We have beaten Al Qaeda. Nothing to see here. Move along. Clearly a shoe string budget, 3 months old YouTube video caused this to happen on 11SEP. Protesters always carry RPGs, AKs, and mortars. Move along, people! Disperse!

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