Saturday, May 11, 2013

The Benghazi "coverup" earned 4 Pinocchios.

Yesterday's news -- that Benghazi talking points, which was relayed to the public by former US Ambassador Susan Rice, had been edited by the State Department to remove certain terrorist references -- earned 4 Pinocchios from WaPo's Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler.

It's no wonder, too.  The Republican message is that this was done to protect the White House, but that never made sense.  Terrorist attacks do not cut into the President's ratings; in fact they usually boost them, sometimes significantly.

If you want to compare and contrast, under Ronald Reagan, the US Embassy and a Marine base were both destroyed six months apart, with no repercussions, but come today and Republicans expect Barack Obama / Hillary Clinton to be punished for rewording of talking points over Benghazi.

You've got to be kidding me, that the GOP have stooped this low as to hold Obama to a standard so high, their own presidents would have been impeached for the deaths of hundreds / thousands of Americans.

Reagan
Bombing of US Embassy in Beirut, Apr 18, 1983
Before: 41% (Mar 11 - 14)
During: 41% (Apr 15 - 18)
After: 43% (Apr 29 - May 2)

Bombing of Marine base in Beirut, Oct 23, 1983
Before: 45% (Oct 7 - 10)
During: 49% (Oct 21 - 24)
After: 53% (Nov 18 - 21)

Bombing of US Embassy (and other targets) in Kuwait City, Dec 12, 1983
Before: 53% (Nov 18 - 21)
During: 54% (Dec 9 - 12)
After: 52% (Jan 13 - 16)

Clinton
First World Trade Center bombing, Feb 26, 1993
Before: 51% (Feb 12 - 14)
During / After: 59% (Feb 26 - 29)
After: 53% (Mar 12 - 14)

Oklahoma City bombing, April 19, 1995
Before: 46% (Apr 17 - 19)
After: 51% (Apr 21 - 24); 51% (May 11 - 14)

US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania bombings (Aug 7, 1998)
Before: 63% (Jul 13 - 14)
During: 64% (Aug 7 - 8)
After:  65% (Aug 10 - 12)

Bombing of USS Cole off Yemen, Oct 12, 2000 -- lame duck
Before: 48% (Oct 6 - 9)
After: 57% (Oct 25 - 28); 63% (Nov 13 - 15)

Bush
9/11 bombing, Sep 11, 2001
Before: 51% (Sep 7 - 10)
After: 86% (Sep 14 - 15); 90% (Sep 21 - 22)

US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia attacked. Dec 6, 2004
Before: 53% (Nov 7 - 10); 55% (Nov 19 - 21)
During: 53% (Dec 5 - 8)
After: 49% (Dec 17 - 19); 52% (Jan 3 - 5)

Bombing and rocket attack on US Embassy in Yemen, Sep 16, 2008 -- lame duck
Before: 33% (Sep 5 - 7); 31% (Sep 8 - 11)
After: 27% (Sep 26 - 27); 25% (Oct 3 - 5)



Notes:

  1. There are a lot more terrorist attacks than I'm listing, but these are significant ones against US facilities or on US soil.  See this for a fuller listing.
  2. Historical poll numbers are from Gallup.
  3. The final year of Bush's poll numbers are marred by the concurrent economic meltdown and failures in Afghanistan and Iraq wars, most notably, the sudden and big drops in GDP in Q3 and Q4 of 2008.

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