Enraged that Obama's Spinners Snagged him the Presidency--with God's help

With all this outrage about Hillary Clinton and the cast of characters involved in the spin of the September terrorist attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, many, like me, recall the original event with "where were you then" importance.

I happened to be visiting a friend in Honolulu, significant because she has a TV that's often tuned to Fox News, while our household is TV-free. I recall being riveted to the screen as info about the attack unfolded, and Fox reporters spent mounting hours unraveling the spin put on the tragic and lethal events by White House operatives, including, illogically, our ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice.

The event was gaining traction. Questions about the veracity of initial explanations were explored. It was looking more and more like the kind of horrific lie that could leave a culpable president the loser to his Republican opponent. Hillary was backed into a corner. Photos of the Embassy devastation made it clear that this was a well-planned bombing, not some street protest over a months-old item on YouTube, that just happened to coincide with September 11. And it was coming out that the White House, with its real-time attendants in the 'war room' observing and discussing everything as it occurred, chose to thwart rescue so as to minimize the attack as an act of aggression, if not war.

The airwaves were heating up. Parents of dead personnel were interviewed over and over. News reports pointed to White House deception; for highest-level Dems President Obama's re-election was the primary goal, and the safety of US personnel secondary. This story was changing the course of history.

Then, news about Benghazi stopped completely. Fox turned its attention away from the panels, interviews, statements of lack of confidence by Republicans, and denials from the White House. And President Obama was re-elected.

Now we've got Gregory Hicks, Mark Thompson and Eric Nordstrom and a growing list of other evidence--emails and statements at the time--to confirm the truth of the deadly event. But it's too late to re-do those first weeks, and, most crucially, the election.

What happened? Hurricane Sandy. God sent Barack Obama a hurricane. Its devastation and uncertainty not only shut down all inquiry about Benghazi, but gave the president his chance to shine. Exit polls after his re-election showed that 14% casting ballots named the president's reaction to Hurricane Sandy as the most important determinant of their presidential choice. Of this decisive 14%, three-quarters voted for Barack Obama. Without Hurricane Sandy, Mitt Romney would have won.

Now we've got retrospective outrage, all over the place. This weekend, Peggy Noonan had an excellent, scathing column in the Wall Street Journal, shredding White House defensiveness. We're seeing where the highest-level spin doctors excised any reference to terrorism and especially al Qaeda, lest it conflict with Obama's repeated campaign line, "We've got al Qaeda on the run!" Conquering al Qaeda was supposedly a great achievement of his first term, proof of his worthiness for re-election. That al Queda wasn't "on the run," but killing Americans and we refused to stop it, wouldn't help Obama's integrity or perceived competence.

photo shown repeatedly, from inside Libya embassy after the bombing

It's all out there now. We're still stuck with Obama. Still stuck with huge national debt and the ridiculousness of the Stimulus Package handing out the people's cash in an environment where unemployment has basically held steady. And now we're seeing how the urgency of politics trumped national security. The additional news about the IRS targeting groups with conservative titles adds to the distressing picture that the goal, from many angles, was to keep Obama in the presidency, even at the cost of ethics and lives.

That still leaves me perplexed about God's motive in sending Hurricane Sandy, but I've got enough faith to hope that over time, we'll understand the bigger picture, and benefit appropriately. Until then, I keep remembering those October days glued to the big-screen TV of my friend in Honolulu, and wondering how all the shocking news will play out this time.