A Bit Obsessed

For those of you blissfully unaware of American Politics - lucky you.  But Tuesday, on September 11th - the 11th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11, there was a demonstration in front of our embassy in Cairo and a possible related / unrelated attack on our consulate in Benghazi (Libya).  Mittens (Mitt Romeny) decided to wade into this and blame President Obama for apologizing to terrorists.  Neither President Obama nor the STate Department did actually apologize, but Mittens is running a truth-free campaign. The "apology tour" is a narrative that the right wing talk radio has fabricated and Mittens is playing to this group.
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Normally, political campaigns end at foreign policy.  But Obama has ordered the killing of Osama Bin Laden and done a bang up job, so Mittens has to cast him somehow as soft.  The statement, which contains no apology in any case, was tweeted by a member of the State Department staff inside the Embassy in Cairo - before the attack in Libya.  So Mittens is just a dumb-ass confused.
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Well, here is the statement in full...
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U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.
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Now, any smart candidate would have either said "whoops" or shut up about it. But Mittens double down and said that any tweet would have to go through approval from the White House. Again Mittens is just a dumb ass confused on this.  And, had he contacted any of the Republicans who know foreign policy he could have learned this.  In fact all of Republican leadership and those knowledgable on foreign affairs declined to support Mittens in his Wrong-Way-Corrigan misadventure.
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But not all Republicans - only those with some foreign policy knowledge.  Others who are just as fact challenged came to his defense.  I think it is defense.  It is hard to make sense of Senator John Kyle's comments...
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“It’s like the judge telling the woman who got raped, ‘You asked for it because of the way you dressed.’ OK? That’s the same thing. ‘Well America, you should be the ones to apologize, you should have known this would happen, you should have done — what I don’t know — but it’s your fault that it happened.’ You know, for a member of our State Department to put out a statement like that, it had to be cleared by somebody. They don’t just do that in the spur of the moment.”
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Honoring the universal right to free speech, while rejecting the actions to hurt the religious beliefs of others.  That is dressing provocatively, or is that the invitation to rape, or is that the judge?
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Let me go to the Washington Post for the final call .
On Wednesday morning, Romney incorrectly reiterated the idea that the statement had been issued after the attacks, apparently hoping to place the incident in the campaign’s narrative that President Obama had been on an “apology tour”— a claim that has earned Romney Four Pinocchios.  (SM- It was issued before any attacks.)

Four Pinocchios