The president’s rally in Cleveland, Ohio yesterday had a few interesting lines during his speech. From saying how Romney is mentally defective with "Romnesia" to showing how “trust” is a key issue in this race, one must ask – has the president forgotten about Benghazi? A foreign policy disaster that ended with the assassination of a U.S. Ambassador, the first time in thirty-three years, which some in the media has been reluctant to talk about.
And yet, CNN ran the soundbite several times of Obama saying "trust matters" -- at the same time it's become clear that the administration abused the public trust by insisting there was "no evidence" of a pre-planned attack.
THE PRESIDENT: So now, in the closing moments of the election, Governor Romney is hoping you, too, will come down with a severe case of Romnesia.
AUDIENCE: No!
THE PRESIDENT: So I’m here to tell you, Cleveland, if you start feeling a temperature, if you’re eyes are getting a little blurry and your hearing is getting a little muffled, if you’re feeling a little weak, you need to know that whatever the symptoms are, don’t worry, Obamacare covers preexisting conditions. (Applause.) We can fix you up. We can make you well. There’s a cure, Ohio, you just have to make sure to vote. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Look, we joke about Romnesia, but it’s not funny because it speaks to something serious. It has to do with trust. There’s no more serious issue in a presidential campaign than trust. Trust matters. You know what, Ohio, after all these years you now know me. You know that I mean what I say and I say what I mean.
Furthermore, this attempt to cast Romney as a flip-flopper is disingenuous in the extreme. President Obama vowed to close Gitmo, but it's doors remain open to hold America's enemies in detention. Obama was against extending the tax cuts for the wealthy, but he did so anyway in December in 2010. He was against gay marriage, but suddenly had a change of heart last spring – just before he went into full campaign mode. He was against the pernicious influence of super PACs, but then started one himself.
Will these flip-flops be on the front page of The Washington Post or The New York Times? Furthermore, and probably most importantly, will the media hammer the president on Libya and the lack of trust that was exuded during the fiasco? Ambassador Stevens trusted President Obama and the State Department to do their jobs and protect him. When the CIA asked to go in and save Stevens from the terrorist attack, they were ordered to stand down. How dare this incident interrupt the president’s fundraiser in Las Vegas?
If the media are so obsessed with fact-checking what the candidates, have to say, specifically Romney, during the debates; they should have the same amount of enthusiasm to check what the president says on the campaign trail.
