Panetta on Benghazi Response Time: This is not 911

“This is not 911. You cannot just simply call and expect within two minutes to have a team in place. It takes time,” Panetta said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

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Who won the debate?

By virtue of the fact that he showed up this time, unlike the Denver debate, President Obama had a much better performance tonight and probably stopped the bleeding.

I thought the president’s most powerful moment was when he was standing for the diplomatic corp while answering the question about Libya.  If I didn’t know that Obama was lying blatantly at the moment, he might have even won me over.  I was shocked that after two weeks of covering up and lying about the attacks on our people in Libya, while blaming the deaths on a YouTube video, that Obama was actually acting presidential.

Mitt Romney must have been shocked too because he missed a huge opportunity to blast Obama for the lies to America’s face about Libya, both tonight and since September 11.   Just as Romney seemed to have his footing for the knock out punch, moderator Candy Crowley interfered, erroneously, on behalf of Obama.

After appealing to his liberal base for the last two months, Obama started to compete with Romney for the center.   Romney countered, with less effectiveness than he did in Denver, by reminding America of Obama’s record.

My favorite moment was when Obama said, “when I was president.”  I hope that was prophetic.

Expect the momentum that Romney has enjoyed for the last two weeks to slow and for the race to move to a dead heat.

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