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The Watcher’s Council

Make that 12…

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match-up.

There’s an old saying that murder will out. And to combine it with another frequent heard saying of our own time, many times it’s not the crime, it’s the coverup that gets you in trouble.

This week’s winner, Bookworm Room’s A foreign policy/war powers law establishes that the unnecessary deaths in Benghazi were Obama’s responsibility, is an excellent summing up of what happened and didn’t happen in Benghazi. According to the exit polls of the recent election, a one hour photo-op touring the devastation of Sandy on the Jersey Shore and Governor Chris Christie’s man crush, served to create a story for the media that knocked Benghazi off the headlines and made Barack Obama appear presidential again to the point that up to 42% of the voters in the exit polls say it affected their vote. Here’s a slice:

Here’s what didn’t happen in Benghazi on September 11, 2012: Despite advanced warning of the attack, and despite urgent, detail rich phone calls from the CIA/former Navy SEAL operatives under attack, and despite real time video feeds of events unfolding on the ground,* no one came to help. No one came to help the 30-odd people trapped in the embassy, no one came to help Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith, and no one came to help Glen Doherty and Lance Woods as they rescued those trapped people and then spent seven terrifying hours on the roof of the administration’s CIA outpost, holding off an al Qaeda affiliate’s attack before they were finally killed.

During this long night, Obama seems to have hung out a bit watching events before going to bed in preparation for a campaign junket to Las Vegas. (One Las Vegas paper does not appreciate that effort.) The next day, the administration started playing the blame game. First, Obama and his shills blamed a 14-minute nothing of a video. To add verisimilitude to an otherwise unconvincing narrative, the government ignored the First Amendment, arranged for the video maker to be arrested for exercising his right of free speech and, seven weeks later, keeps him imprisoned. (And yes, he was ostensibly jailed for a parole violation, but I think we all know that the way he was treated was a farcical overreaction that can only be explained as part of a larger cover-up.) Just so you know, they do the same kind of thing in China, which is not blessed with a First Amendment.

When the video story fell apart, Hillary said events in Benghazi were her responsibility (although she was careful to blame unnamed subordinates for the actual security failure). Interestingly, neither the administration nor the media demanded her resignation or even an investigation. When the Obama administration started to turn its knives on Bill Clinton for allegedly giving bad campaign advice, Hillary leaked that, well, no, really, she’d done everything she could to increase security, but nobody (read: the White House) would let her.

With the State Department pushing back, the next obvious culprit was the CIA — especially once we learned that Woods and Doherty had begged the CIA for help. The media and the White House were thrilled. Thrilled, that is, until General Petraeus said that no one on his watch had refused help. Suddenly, all eyes (except, of course, for mainstream media eyes) were back on the White House.

Next up for blame? The Pentagon, of course. Leon Panetta lamely explained that “Golly, it was dangerous out there and the military never sends its troops into danger, don’t you know.” Panetta’s excuse was ridiculed by people who care and accepted as the God’s honest truth by the mainstream media. The White House again heaved a sigh of relief.

But then, darn it, Lance Woods’ father refused to slunk back into the night. Instead, he told a few home truths: Obama was a cold fish, Hillary lied again about the video, and Joe Biden . . . . Well, there really aren’t words for a man who walks up to a bereaved father and makes vulgar remarks about his dead child’s anatomy. The MSM kept silent on this one too, but enough people (plus Fox, of course) were agitating that the story suddenly started to spread — and that despite the media’s by now quite valiant efforts to ignore it to death:

This isn’t going to go away.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Michelle Malkin with Obama gets his “revenge,” but conservatives must stand tall submitted by Joshuapundit. It’s a piece written after Tuesday’s election and reminds us that principles remain all important. Do read it.

Okay, okay… here are this week’s full results. Only Simply Jews and The Independent Sentinel were unable to vote, but neither was subject to the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 2/3 votes! – Bookworm Room – A foreign policy/war powers law establishes that the unnecessary deaths in Benghazi were Obama’s responsibility
• Second place with 3 1/3 votes – Joshuapundit – A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – The Razor – The Health Care Rebellion Begins
• Fourth place with 1 vote – The Political Commentator – Hurricane Sandy has been a “big f—ing deal!” in New York and New Jersey!
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – What the Right constantly has to deal with
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Independent Sentinel – We Are All Socialists Now
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room – Even Without Bread, We Must Have Circuses
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – It’s Not The Country…
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Winning Friends and Influencing People
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – Military Doctors, They Are Special
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Right Planet – #BenghaziQuiddick
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Simply Jews – Did Tzipi Livni have sex with Arabs when working for Mossad?

Non-Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! – Michelle Malkin – Obama gets his “revenge,” but conservatives must stand tall submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place with 2 2/3 votes – Mark Steyn – Biggest Big Government can’t keep lights on submitted by The Noisy Room
• Third place with 2 1/3 votes – The Chicago Boyz – Decline is Not Inevitable submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Fourth place*t* with 1 vote – The Corner/Bing West – Cynicism Confirmed submitted by Gay Patriot
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Via Meadia – Why the Ambassador Died submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes – Georgia Tip Sheet – Lowery: all whites are going to hell submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Telegraph – Could Iran’s Supreme Leader be more cautious than we think? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Barry Rubin – One Thousand and One Articles Later: Why Obama Should be Voted Out of Office Today submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Foundry – Now Is a Time for Commitment submitted by The Watcher
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote – Yid With Lid – The Jewish Star Endorses Mitt Romney submitted by The Political Commentator

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