Did Stephanie Cutter Just Win The Foreign Policy Debate For Romney? video
by Noah Rothman October 11th, 2012
mediaite.com
In case you haven’t seen the video, watch it. Drink it in. Obama campaign Deputy Communications Director Stephanie Cutter, in a craven and flailing attempt to salvage the White House’s ebbing credibility surrounding their response to the 9/11/12 attacks in Libya, said that it was her estimation that the attacks were only an issue because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan made it one.
In effect, Cutter said that this attack, one of the most comprehensive and successful Al Qaeda attacks on American assets since September 11, 20001 in which an American ambassador overseas was killed for the first time since the Carter administration, was only on the media’s radar because it is an election year. Stephanie Cutter has just provided Mitt Romney a stronger argument against President Barack Obama’s handling of foreign affairs he could have hoped for. In a single bound, Cutter revealed the administration’s thinking about how to respond to this deadly attack – it is not about American security, it is about politics. Fair or not, that is how Romney will frame Cutter’s glib remark.
Stephanie Cutter must have known that the administration has been under fire for sending out high level officials to disseminate information about the origins of that attack that they were aware at the time was false. Cutter must have known that the State Department is in the hot seat for ignoring consulate and embassy requests for more security and reallocating assets that could have aided those threatened diplomatic officials elsewhere on the globe. There is no way Cutter could not have known that she was simply unqualified to discuss matters of national security or the president’s response to threats posed by global terrorism in North Africa and the Middle East.
But she ignored all that when she jumped out in front of the issue and brazenly accused the Republican ticket of politicizing the attack in Libya. She then dared to suggest that Romney criticized Obama on the Libya attacks before he had enough information. Even if he did, events have vindicated him. Cutter is a few news cycles behind the rest of us.
One of the president’s chief spokespeople has now handed a weapon for the foreign policy debate on October 22 that he could never have dreamed of having. Cutter has created a victim of Romney – a martyr, accused of politicizing an event when he is, as I expect him to say, seeking answers about a mishandled tragedy for the American people. He will cite the grieving families of the victims of that attack and the millions of Americans who are now threatened by an emboldened and resurgent Al Qaeda. Romney will be righteous and he will be justified in that righteousness.
The Libya issue has already decimated how American’s view Obama’s handling of foreign affairs — once a strong suit of the president. Two months ago, the Chicago team probably thought they could walk through the foreign policy debate. Now, less than a week and a half before the final presidential debate, Obama’s own staff may have already lost it for him.
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To: maggief
So we’ve gone from a “bump in the road” to “not an issue at all”. What’s next - it never happened at all?
3 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:04:14 PM by randita
To: maggief
I found her comments/attitude to be extremely offensive. After watching the entire hearing on Benghazi yesterday, it totally pissed me off.
5 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:07:43 PM by MissMagnolia (Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't. (M.Thatcher))
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To: maggief
Why does she still have a job with the Obama campaign?
How, after saying something so callous and odious as this?
6 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:07:46 PM by LowTaxesEqualsProsperity
To: randita
The first killing of a US ambassador in 33 years and it’s no big deal she says, had Romney not opened his big yap about it. Kansas, we’re not in Dorothy anymore.
10 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:09:42 PM by HiTech RedNeck (let me ABOs run loose, lew (or is that lou?))
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To: randita
“What’s next - it never happened at all?”
I’m sure they wish it hadn’t (I think???).
11 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:10:03 PM by MNGal
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To: maggief
And if Biden bashes Ryan over the head with ‘Republicans are responsible for Benghazi’, Ryan needs to simply respond, ‘Did Republicans put Stevens in the Benghazi Embassy on the most dangerous day of the year?’
12 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:10:03 PM by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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To: maggief
Well, it looks like the old saying "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when ONCE we practice to deceive" Full Blown Tangled Web now, they wove it themselves and now in the process of entraping themselves in it, it don't get any better than this, just in time for halloween too.
Sit back and enjoy, relish, delight in all of it now, but pray they don't get any more KILLED with their foolishness.
For Romney, everything is FAIR game now.
13 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:10:35 PM by annieokie (O)
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To: maggief
Mitt Romney responds.
“President Obama’s campaign today said that Libya is only an issue because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. They’re wrong. The reason it is an issue is because, for the first time since 1979, an American ambassador was assassinated and President Obama’s foreign policy strategy of ‘leading from behind’ is failing. This administration has continually misled the American public about what happened in Benghazi and, rather than be truthful about the sequence of events, has instead skirted responsibility and dodged questions. The American people deserve straight answers about this tragic event and a president who can provide leadership, not excuses.”
14 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:10:47 PM by nhwingut (Sarah Palin 12... No One Else)
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To: maggief
Just post a campaign ad with shots of the damage, including the blood streaks, and then cut to Stephanie. Let her rant, and then say, “Obama’s surrogate says if it weren’t for politics, this wouldn’t be important.”
I’m Pearls Before Swine, and I approved this message.
I think it would be a nasty, effective ad.
15 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:11:11 PM by Pearls Before Swine
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To: maggief
So the murder of an American Ambassador by an Al Queda that is supposedly neutered, and the death of other good Americans by the neglect and complete disdain of this White Hourse for requested security is simply blown out of proportion?
Get the hook and get these clowns off the stage.
16 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:11:26 PM by OpusatFR
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To: wastedyears
September 11, 20001 If we were talking about the year 20,001, it would still take A BILLION DOLLARS per year to pay off the national debt by then.
Just sayin'. Wasted years indeed!
17 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:12:14 PM by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: maggief
TRANSLATION: If the Republicans would stop bringing this up, the media could have buried it by now.
18 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:12:39 PM by ez (When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.)
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To: maggief
19 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:13:19 PM by Signalman
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To: nhwingut
Thank you for Romney’s response.
Here’s a link.
nationalreview.com
20 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:13:27 PM by maggief
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To: sam_paine
I got the name from this.
youtube.com
21 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:17:12 PM by wastedyears (The First Law of Heavy Metal: Not all metal is satanic.)
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To: nhwingut
That is a really good response.
22 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:17:36 PM by mrs9x
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To: maggief
Did Stephanie Cutter Just Win The Foreign Policy Debate For Romney?
She may have just won the election for Romney.
23 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:17:45 PM by Col Frank Slade
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To: maggief
wonder what else is not an issue because no Republican has brought it up.
24 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:18:27 PM by TornadoAlley3 (Obama is everything Oklahoma is not.)
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To: maggief
This lady is one heartless little bitch!! It was NO gaffe, this is how liberals feel..they dont give a damn about Americans serving abroad, they only care when it helps them politically..what this heartless hack said is exactly what the Obama Administration feels
25 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:22:05 PM by Sarah Barracuda
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To: maggief
"...in which an American ambassador overseas was killed for the first time since the Carter administration"Up until now Carter still had that going in his favor for the title of "Worst.President.Ever"
26 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:23:37 PM by Mr. K ("The only thing the World would hate more than the USA in charge is the USA NOT in charge")
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To: wastedyears; Clint N. Suhks; lightman; MagUSNRET
1949 - 20001 = 18,052
I don’t feel *that* old.
I do need a shave, though. LOL.
27 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:24:22 PM by carriage_hill (Libs, dems, unions, leftist scum & murderous muzzies - are like bacteria: attack, attack, attack!)
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To: maggief
I heard a rumor that she also said that it was her estimation that the economy was only an issue because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan made it one.
28 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:24:49 PM by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: LowTaxesEqualsProsperity
How can they fire her - she’s a woman. The affirmative action mentality in full effect here...
29 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:25:07 PM by Aria ( 2008 wasn't an election - it was a coup d'etat.)
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To: Col Frank Slade
+1
30 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:25:52 PM by DarthVader (Politicians govern out of self interest, Statesmen govern for a Vision greater than themselves)
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To: maggief
Have they ‘walked it back’ yet?.......
31 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:26:40 PM by Red Badger (Is it just me, or is Hillary! starting to look like Benjamin Franklin?.................)
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To: carriage_hill
1949 - 20001 = 18,052 No, it's -18,052. That's 18,052 BC!
32 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:27:03 PM by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: maggief
One of the Obama scandals buried by their media toadies long ago was the story of how much less female employees are paid compared to the men.
I guess you get what you pay for.
In the political Super Bowl of 2012, Obama just fumbled on the one yard line. Romney has recovered and there’s less than 30 seconds to play. Take a knee.
33 posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:27:39 PM by atc23 (The Confederacy was the single greatest conservative resistance to federal authority ever.u)
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To: Right Wing Assault
The economy??
Don’t you remember the first debate Barack Obama said we are all better off than 4 years ago because of his tax cuts that allows us to buy a car or a computer.... |
