Last night President Barack Obama stood up for Secretary Hillary Clinton, in a way that not only exemplified his strength, but, in an instinctive visceral sense, allows the public, including a large number of female voters, to view him as chivalrous.
The President stood before the American people and took responsibility for the unfortunate death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, and others who died due to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, in a way that also thwarted the Republican suggestion, concerning the event, that he is involved in a “cover-up” in order to shirk presidential responsibility.
Now they are left with the awkward argument that the President has claimed responsibility for an event that they say he is still not claiming responsibility for.
Many had viewed Secretary Clinton’s statement that she was responsible for not adequately protecting the ambassador and his staff in Benghazi as a "falling on the sword" moment to protect the President.
The Secretary said:
I take responsibility. I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision.
President Obama not only took on this argument of shirking responsibility from Republicans, but he also
defended Secretary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, as well as his entire staff:
Secretary Clinton has done an extraordinary job. But she works for me. I'm the president and I'm always responsible, and that's why nobody's more interested in finding out exactly what happened than I do.
The day after the attack, governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people in the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. That this was an act of terror and I also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime.
And then a few days later, I was there greeting the caskets coming into Andrews Air Force Base and grieving with the families.
And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the Secretary of State, our U.N. Ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. That's not what we do. That's not what I do as president, that's not what I do as Commander in Chief.
This was not only an incredible moment of strength from President Obama, who accepted unequivocal ownership of a potentially damaging political issue in a hotly contested presidential race, but it is also a moment in which, by protecting Secretary Clinton, and not allowing her to take the fall, the President could very well manage to endear himself to voters, who might view his defense of the Secretary as chivalrous.
This, indeed, will not only fortify a closer bond between President Obama and former President Clinton, it will, from all appearances, manage to present a political checkmate to Republicans.