A year after the Senate Intelligence Committee determined there was no Administration wrongdoing around the Benghazi attack, the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee had determined … there was no Administration wrongdoing around the Benghazi attack.
Don't worry, though — the House GOP is teeing up yet another set of hearings on the subject.
House panel: No administration wrongdoing in Benghazi attack
The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee. — Intelligence agencies were “warned about an increased threat environment, but did not have specific …
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"But… it's his Watergate! Sure, worse happened under W., but this is OBAMA doing it! Okay, he didn't actually do anything bad… but HE'S EVIL! HE'S GOT A FUNNY NAME THAT RHYMES WITH OSAMA! AIIEEEEEEE!"
I swear, one of these days, one of these House nutjobs is going to admit into an open mike that they just can't stand him because he's black.
Yeah, it's really going to be a hoot when one of those nutjobs says something about Obama like…
"the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy"
Oh, wait…that was Joe Biden.
+Mark Means And, yeah, that was an asinine comment by Biden.
On the other hand, I'll leave any issues about racism in the VP to the guy who chose him, twice, as a running mate.
Yeah, everybody knows that was Bill Cosby!
If you want to believe Obama would actually chose Biden, sure. As stupid as I think he is, even I don't think Obama is that stupid.
+Mark Means So … Obama didn't choose Biden as his VP?
No, I think the party chose Biden or, at least, gave him a good, hard, nudge in the general direction.
The same thing in the case of McCain/Palin.
+Mark Means A good, hard nudge? Sure. The party will always do that to balance the factors they like. That said, the days of the party saddling a candidate with the ticket-balancer of their choice are long gone. Obama signed off on Biden, for better or worse (and not, as is often quipped, to scare people away from the prospect of removing him from office).
Do you really think so? I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with Mark on this one — I can't think of any rational justification for.. really, any VP candidate since Gore, except to draw in votes from a particular state/demographic. Biden is not likely to follow Obama as president, but he sure is an Affable White Guy – presumably what some number of independent voters liked about W. Ryan is a crazy conspiracy-theorist, but he's a "Tea Party Hero", and he helped alleviate worried Christians and Catholics about Romney being Mormon. Palin was just a disaster, and it was pretty clear in their body language that McCain didn't like her, but she sure fired up that particular portion of 'the base".
Quayle made more sense than most of the recent picks, and he's the first one I remember being joked about as an assassinatin-deterrent. (Presumably because, well, that's how old I am. I bet that goes back a ways.) He was basically just goofy the same way Biden is. Clearly Obama signed off on him, but I don't think that contradicts the likelihood that he did so for campaign purposes over anything else.
+Kingsley Lintz Biden's a lot sharper than Quayle ever dreamed of being; he's just got an annoying lack of filters between brain and mouth. Most of the things he says that he gets dinged for are not derp-stupid, as Quayle was, but simply cringe-worthy inappropriate.
He also brought some strong Congressional ties to the table.
I'm not suggesting Obama and Biden are best of friends or that he signed off on him on that basis. The VP candidate is always an array of things to "add" to the ticket, be it geography or experience or other demographics — and affable working-class-styled white guy is certainly a nice balance to a black constitutional scholar / community activist. I'm just saying that it was Obama's call, not the DNC.
We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one, +Dave Hill because I'm not buying it.
I don't know. I can't imagine Palin was voluntary on McCain's part. Obama/Biden… shrug Maybe. But it seems reasonable to me to assume that the parties (both) demand a fair amount of… "creative control" in exchange for their money and support, and almost every VP I can think of seems much more chosen (whoever by) to balance the ticket for campaign purposes, than with any real thought about who should be Next In Line.