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The Obama Watch
‘Cooling Out’ the Voters
On Benghazi, Obama’s confindence men think Americans are an easy mark.
Confidence men know that their victim — “the mark” as he has been called — is eventually going to realize that he has been cheated. But it makes a big difference whether he realizes it immediately, and goes to the police, or realizes it after the confidence man is long gone.
So part of the confidence racket is creating a period of uncertainty, during which the victim is not yet sure of what is happening. This delaying process has been called “cooling out the mark.”
The same principle applies in politics. When the accusations that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton first surfaced, he flatly denied them all. Then, as the months passed, the truth came out — but slowly, bit by bit. One of Clinton’s own White House aides later called it “telling the truth slowly.”
By the time the whole truth came out, it was called “old news,” and the clever phrase now was that we should “move on.”
It was a successful “cooling out” of the public, keeping them in uncertainty so long that, by the time the whole truth came out, there was no longer the same outrage as if the truth had suddenly come out all at once. Without the support of an outraged public, the impeachment of President Clinton fizzled out in the Senate.
We are currently seeing another “cooling out” process, growing out of the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi on September 11th this year.
The belated release of State Department e-mails shows that the Obama administration knew, while the attack on the American consulate was still underway, that it was a coordinated, armed terrorist attack. They were getting reports from those inside the consulate who were under attack, as well as surveillance pictures from a camera on an American drone overhead.
About an hour before the attack, the scene outside was calm enough for the American ambassador to accompany a Turkish official to the gates of the consulate to say goodbye. This could hardly have happened if there were protesting mobs there.
Why then did both President Obama and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice keep repeating the story that this was a spontaneous protest riot against an anti-Islamic video in America?
The White House knew the facts — but they knew that the voting public did not. And it mattered hugely whether the facts became known to the public before or after the election. What the White House needed was a process of “cooling out” the voters, keeping them distracted or in uncertainty as long as possible.
Not only did the Obama administration keep repeating the false story about an anti-Islamic video being the cause of a riot that turned violent, the man who produced that video was tracked down and arrested, creating a media distraction.
All this kept the video story front and center, with the actions and inactions of the Obama administration kept in the background.
The White House had to know that it was only a matter of time before the truth would come out. But time was what mattered, with an election close at hand. The longer they could stretch out the period of distraction and uncertainty — “cooling out” the voters — the better. Once the confidence man in the White House was reelected, it would be politically irrelevant what facts came out.
As the Obama administration’s video story began to slowly unravel, their earlier misstatements were blamed on “the fog of war” that initially obscures many events. But there was no such “fog of war” in this case. The Obama administration knew what was happening while it was happening.
They didn’t know all the details — and we may never know all the details — but they knew enough to know that this was no protest demonstration that got out of hand.
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
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Aristocat| 10.30.12 @ 6:22AM
In spite of the media blackout, Americans are going to figure out that Obama left some brave men to die.
They were defending American citizens on American turf, which is our embassy. These brave men gave their lives to rescue some 30 others. These men are our sons, our brothers, our husbands and fathers....They refused to "Stand down" when lives were on the line. They ran toward the trouble, not away from it like Obama does. "Remember Benghazi !"
The Avenger| 10.30.12 @ 6:25AM
Well said Aristocat, well said indeed! This CIC is a lying SOB, and a coward.
Alan Third Party Voter Brooks | 10.30.12 @ 9:31AM
Benghazi is nothing compared to the Beirut Barracks bombing of '83.
Alan Third Party Voter Brooks | 10.30.12 @ 11:16AM
In the attack on the American Marines barracks at an airport in Beirut Lebanon 1983, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers, along with sixty Americans injured- 4 dead in Benghazi is chicken scratch compared to that.
spike59| 10.31.12 @ 5:39AM
i don't recall the Reagan administration telling would-be defenders of the barracks to 'stabnd down, just let them die, we've got a foreign policy Potemkin Village to support'...i don't recall Regan's Sec of State and YN Ambassador making the rounds of the talk shows blaming the bombing on a video no one saw...but i DO recall the C-in-C taking full responsibility
Mike G| 10.30.12 @ 9:43AM
You are correct. The problem is that by the time everyone figures this out, the LSM will have proclaimed it "old news" and the guilty parties will have gotten away with murder, literally.
Gary B| 10.30.12 @ 1:05PM
Aristocrat,
"They ran toward trouble..." We can do the same by running toward the polls to deliver payback to that sick bastard in the White House.
spike59| 10.31.12 @ 5:42AM
There is no greater duty for all patriotic Americans on Nov 6 than to fire the incompetent SOB who callously, in the name of propping up an obviously false narrative re: his Middle East policies on the eve of an election,directly caused the deaths of his Libyan Ambassador and 3 others
Darin| 10.30.12 @ 6:36AM
The SEALs were told to stand down. They were told to let fellow Americans be butchered. Instead of hunkering down, they ran to the sound of chaos. Because that's what SEALs do.
Obama either knew what was happening or displayed gross incompetence by not knowing. His actions after-the-face are those of a coward. Because that's what Obama is.
gulfcoastcommentary | 10.30.12 @ 7:31AM
I liked your article. I wrote a blog yesterday called "Obama Got His 3 Am Call..." (it was 3 pm ET as the blog explains the timeline)
http://gulfcoastcommentary.blo.....ailed.html
TLP| 10.30.12 @ 8:56AM
Good luck with that.
JP| 10.30.12 @ 7:42AM
You have to agree it is working. Dr Sowell didn't mention that the MSM is complicit in the "cooling off" period. Since Friday they have maintained a black-out on all news concerning Benghazi. And now with Hurricane Sandy they have a reason to ignore this piece of preisdential treachery completely.
TLP| 10.30.12 @ 9:09AM
Let me tell you something - Everybody knows what went down in Benghazi. Every Union Guy who SERVED, or who has a Kid in the Service, knows what happened. The Private Sector Union Rank and File in every facet of The Energy Sector (as if they needed any more reasons to vote against this Scumbag) know what went down, over there.
The only people that DON'T KNOW are the Racist, Brain Dead American Blacks, who would Vote for him even if he Slit their Mother's Throat right in front of them. And, even if they did? They wouldn't care, anymore than they "Cared" about President Bojangles running around, Collecting Money for HIMSELF, for 5 Days, while New Orleans lay Underwater.
SUBVET| 10.30.12 @ 9:34AM
TLP.....becarefull you don't want the trolls to call you a rasist.
and what was up with them pulling posts yesterday.....1st amendment ?
Oldefarte| 10.30.12 @ 1:53PM
I respectfully disagree partially. Many Americans know what FOX etc has exposed, but that is nowhere near the complete story of this. Not even the writers here have opined same. Read Frank Gaffney's recent editorials on this matter for an indication of the total picture !!!!!!!!
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 10.30.12 @ 8:24AM
A well laid out case of double deception.
Once again, thank you Dr. Sowell.
Nancy in NC| 10.30.12 @ 8:38AM
We must not participate in allowing the media to ignore the failure of Obama to do the most important thing required of the government: to protect American soil. And the Benghazi consulate was American soil.
I have the pleasure of speaking with young Marines almost daily, and they are not happy. They know the government failed the Americans in Libya, and it didn't start on 9/11/12. It started when they were denied extra security and withdrew the basic security they had in August. That needs to remain the focus. On 9/11 Americans were left in harms way and all the evidence was present that trouble was coming down the pike.
Does anyone think the media would be silent if a member of the GOP were in the WH?
Jacob McCandles| 10.30.12 @ 8:44AM
Panetta sits there and talks about what the "general principle" is. You don't go into a situation when you don't know what's going on. I wonder what Patton would say about that. He never had live video feeds of the German army's movements or location. He took the best intel he had, which was often vague and inaccurate, and took his men into battle. He understood that in armed struggles things change minute to minute. That's why you go in strong and give it to em with everything at your disposal. Look what this country has become since then. Thank God we still have men like our SEALS out there willing to risk their lives.
Stephie| 10.30.12 @ 10:39AM
Panetta is a slimy dirty democrat politician. What the hell does he know about what SEALS and the rest of the military does? These people make me sick. This will take a long time to uncover and obama will be long gone. Can he be indicted after he leaves office? Can we take away his $400,000 a year and SS protection for his gross negligence or deliberate actions in getting these men killed? This is so surreal that a sitting president would so such a thing.
Kwan| 10.30.12 @ 8:58AM
I think we can all agree that being a Communist Street Agitator (Community Organizer) is not exactly the kind of training that produces an individual qualified to be elected Commander-in-Chief, charged with the responsibility of defending the nation or our foreign service personnel.The airheads that voted for this incompetent Communist Bum in 2008 can share some of the responsibility for what occurred in Benghazi, and maybe just maybe it will clear out some of that "fog of idiocy" that's floating in that vacuum between their ears.
C Smith | 10.30.12 @ 9:14AM
Frank Gaffney in a recent column in Townhall explains the dynamics and logistics of the media-complicit cover-up now known as "Benghazigate":
"The evidence suggests that the Obama administration has not simply been engaging, legitimating, enriching and emboldening Islamists who have now taken over or are ascendant in much of the Middle East. Starting in March 2011, when American diplomat Christopher Stevens was designated the liaison to the "opposition" in Libya, the Obama administration has been arming them, including jihadists like Abdelhakim Belhadj, the leader of the al Qaeda franchise known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group."
Obama literally raced to the cameras to take credit for killing al-Qaeda notable Osama bin Laden just hours after his body bobbed beneath the wake of the USS Carl Vinson. On a sequent campaign event, he reminded his admirers: "I promised to go after al Qaeda and bin Laden, and we did it," and during the final presidential debate he took credit for having "decimated" "Al Qaeda's core leadership."
Yet, evidence now suggests that the administration was concurrently coordinating a covert "fast and furious" "gun-running" operation aiding the very terrorist organization it claimed to have decimated by killing Osama bin Laden.
http://townhall.com/columnists.....page/full/
Alan's Girl| 10.30.12 @ 12:15PM
Since the Beirut bombing in 1983, there have been at least 3,064 American lives lost to Muslim jihadists/Islamic terrorists or by whatever name you want to give these animals. These lives were sacrificed on American soil- here or abroad- by individuals or groups of individuals 'advancing the cause' of their 'religion'. The HEAT of this last attack must not, I repeat, MUST NOT- be allowed to cool down. So many have forgotten, or let grow dim the horrors of these acts of cowardice, particularly September 11, 2001. We are too timid in our anger, too placid in our zeal, & unforgivable in our lack of honor to these who have given the highest-- even for the unappreciative among us. If you value your freedoms & liberties (do you know what you have?); if you cherish your rights; if you treasure your very existence, you need to assess your stand, or lack of it, on this issue & hold every Senator & Congressman's feet to the fire to examine & have the guts to indict, prosecute & incarcerate those that allowed this to take place. They must be held accountable.
REMEMBER BENGHAZI!!
Source:
http://www.thereligionofpeace......ttacks.htm
Oldefarte| 10.30.12 @ 1:55PM
Good editorial, but still this nor any other source is telling all of it. This was a armaments-running operation down there and it was possibly tied into Fast&Furious;!!!!!!!!
Lysander Spooner Law Scho | 11.1.12 @ 12:19AM
The pretensident's behavior in releasing a pdf version of his long form birth certificate also counts as "cooling out" his marks. Let's once again thank Terry Lakin, a military man who refused to be a vassal to a fraud, and paid a significant price. If "obama" wasn't so important as a symbol of equality to the judiciary, media, and academy, they could risk treating him equally.