{"id":5244,"date":"2012-10-20T01:05:19","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T21:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/?p=2356"},"modified":"2012-10-20T01:05:19","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T21:05:19","slug":"obama-romney-and-crowley-when-is-a-terrorist-not-a-terrorist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/2012\/10\/20\/obama-romney-and-crowley-when-is-a-terrorist-not-a-terrorist\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama, Romney, and Crowley: When Is a Terrorist Not a Terrorist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published by Communities @ Washington Times<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

SAN DIEGO<\/strong>, October 20, 2012 \u2014 Last Tuesday night, our presidential candidates were supposed to participate in a debate. The evening may have displayed a lot of theatrics, but the real debate began one minute after CNN\u2019s chief political correspondent, Candy Crowley said good night. The discussion continues even now between bloggers, columnists, radio talk show hosts, and television news analysts. They are arguing over \u00a0the definition of the word terror<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The question should be easy to settle. In fact, the argument might have been over by now had there also been an honest definition of another important word, moderator<\/em>. The more interesting story began before Tuesday evening, when both presidential candidates made an attempt to moderate the moderator with a written agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moderator will not ask follow-up <\/em>questions<\/em> <\/em>or comment on either the questions asked by the audience or the answers of the candidates during the debate or otherwise intervene in the debate except to acknowledge the questioners from the audience or enforce the time limits, and invite candidate comments during the 2 minute response period\u201d (Memorandum of understanding section 7, part (c), sub-part (iv).<\/p>\n

An interview with Politico <\/em>offered some rather obvious clues that Crowley was not taking the agreement very seriously. \u201cI\u2019m not a fly on the wall\u2026 I\u2019m going to react organically to what\u2019s happening\u201d(Politico, 10-15-12).<\/p>\n

Romney and Obama still showed up and must live with their decision. The fate is more palatable for Obama. Although the requested rules came from both candidates, our president is quite happy Crowley refused to comply. After hearing her \u201cauthenticate\u201d his claim that he did initially call the Libyan attack of September 11th<\/sup> terror, <\/em>Obama looked like a satisfied Jeopardy<\/em> contestant listening to Alex Trebek declare, \u201cThat is correct.\u201d Maybe Obama didn\u2019t phrase his answer as a question, but plenty of questions were hatched as a result of Crowley\u2019s interference.<\/p>\n

Since Tuesday, more critical news has been uncovered. According to the Associated Press<\/em>, \u201cWithin 24 hours of the deadly attack, the CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington that there were eyewitness reports that the attack was carried out by militants, officials \u2026 But for days, the Obama administration blamed it on an out-of-control demonstration over an American-made video ridiculing Islam\u2019s Prophet Muhammad\u201d (AP 10-19-12).<\/p>\n

Even before this development, there were other crucial facts uncovered by a House investigation. During the debate, Romney, relying on already established news, said, \u201cAnd there was no demonstration involved. It was a terrorist attack and it took a long time for that to be told to the American people. Whether there was some misleading, or instead whether we just didn\u2019t know what happened, you have to ask yourself why didn\u2019t we know five days later when the ambassador to the United Nations went on TV to say that this was a demonstration? How could we have not known?\u201d<\/p>\n

His words were rebuked by Obama. A sparring match followed, culminating in Candy Crowley\u2019s now infamous verdict: \u00a0\u201cIt \u2014 it \u2014 it \u2014 he did in fact, sir. So let me \u2014 let me call it an act of terror\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama was so delighted, he asked her to repeat the statement. Many members of the audience shared his enthusiasm. They clapped. Clapping was also a violation of the rules. It didn\u2019t matter. Since perception gets mistaken for reality, Obama was informally viewed by many as the winner.<\/p>\n

The FBI Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism<\/em> as \u201cthe unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives\u201d (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85). <\/em><\/p>\n

That may be an official definition, but some people use the term far more generally. They view any act of violence or vandalism as terror. Such common, generic usage suggests that two people can use the same word and mean different things.<\/p>\n

Romney was talking about a coordinated attack by an actual terrorist organization timed with the anniversary of the 9\/11 2001 World Trade Center destruction.<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s actual words at the Rose Garden speech seemed to use the word terror more loosely, \u201cNo acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple definitions offer convenient cover when people are caught contradicting themselves. When first accused, President Bill Clinton insisted that he did not have sex with intern, Monica Lewinski, only to later discover that she had a stained dress as evidence.\u00a0 His subsequent pseudo confession strained the definition of sex. \u201cWhile my answers were legally accurate, I did not volunteer information. Indeed, I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong\u201d (Televised speech, 8-17-98).<\/p>\n

The key words here are \u201clegally correct.\u201d Evidently, oral sex was not supposed to pass as real honest-to-goodness sex.<\/p>\n

And so, in Clintonian fashion, the true meaning of the word terror <\/em>is also being parsed. Since Romney was talking about terror in the vain of Al Qaeda or similar groups, Obama is disingenuous to act as if his Rose Garden speech intended that same definition. If such was the case, why did his surrogates emphasize alleged spontaneous violence in response to an offensive video after <\/em>the Rose Garden talk?<\/p>\n

White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney said, \u201cThis is not a case of protests directed at the United States writ large or at U.S. policy. This is in response to a video that is offensive\u201d (Press Conference, 9-14-12).<\/p>\n

While visiting Fox New Sunday<\/em>, on September 16, 2012, Ambassador Susan Rice, speaking on behalf of the State Department, was asked by Chris Wallace to comment on Carney\u2019s remark.<\/p>\n

WALLACE:<\/strong> You don\u2019t really believe that?<\/p>\n

RICE:<\/strong> Chris, absolutely I believe that. In fact, it is the case. We had the evolution of the Arab spring over the last many months. But what sparked the recent violence was the airing on the Internet of a very hateful very offensive video that has offended many people around the world.<\/p>\n

Fox News Sunday<\/em> was only one of five Sunday shows Susan Rice appeared on with the same interpretation of events.<\/p>\n

But we don\u2019t need to go that far back to settle this matter. Candy Crowley herself, appeared on a CNN panel the night of the debate and explained that Romney was \u201cright\u201d inasmuch as Obama and his spokespeople still insisted for weeks that the incident was about a video.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight after that I did turn around and say, but you\u2019re totally correct that they spent two weeks telling us this was about a tape and that that there was this riot outside the Benghazi consulate which there wasn\u2019t. He was right in the main, I just think he picked the wrong word\u2026 (CNN, October 16, 2012).<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, most people will never see her post debate elaboration. Instead, they remember a feisty, confrontational moment where the moderator acted as a referee. Although Crowley also offered a qualifying statement during the critical debate moment, she said it incorrectly.\u00a0 With the CNN panel, Crowley was not actually repeating what she said. She repeated what she thought <\/em>she said. The actual words were, \u201cHe \u2014 he did call it an act of terror. It did as well take \u2014 it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. You are correct about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It did not take two weeks for them to get out the idea about the riot being a result of a video.. They talked about the video immediately. It took two weeks for them to admit it was a planned terrorist attack. Crowley didn\u2019t intentionally say the reverse of the truth. It was a slip of the tongue. Still, within less than a minute, her sizzling commentary on Libya was \u201cObama two , Romney zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Crowley has explained her self even further. On October 17th she told CNN\u2019s Soledad \u00a0O\u2019Brien, \u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to get them to clap, I was trying to sort of \u2013 you know, bring some kind of clarity to the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks for the explanation, Candy, but the real problem was assuming the subject was yours to steer in the first place. You couldn\u2019t have picked a finer moment to \u201cmove along.\u201d Two candidates for president were relaying opposite information. One was lying. One was telling the truth. The audience had a right to see the conversation to fruition without you pulling the plug.<\/p>\n

But Candy was certainly correct about one thing. She was not a fly on the wall after all. If only she had been, the audience might have seen a real debate with an objective moderator who is there to watch the time, keep the candidates from interrupting each other, and keep her opinions to herself. Instead, we witnessed a quiz show where President Obama won the grand prize and Mitt Romney was awarded some lovely parting gifts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published by Communities @ Washington Times SAN DIEGO, October 20, 2012 \u2014 Last Tuesday night, our presidential candidates were supposed to participate in a debate. The evening may have displayed a lot of theatrics,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aboutpolitics","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}