Benghazi, Bill Clinton’s scandals: Republicans poised to break out their greatest hits at convention [View all]

[DonViejo]

The GOP is going back to the well, building at least the first 2 nights of the convention around stale attacks

GARY LEGUM

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Night 1: The first night of the convention will have “a Benghazi focus.” Having gotten absolutely nowhere in four years of trying to make the tragic attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya the worst scandal for an American administration since Teapot Dome, the GOP is going to…rehash the whole mishegas again, apparently. Sure, eight separate congressional investigations may have found that the rumors about the attack were garbage ginned up by the right (The stand-down order! No one knows where Obama was during the attack!). None of that will likely stop the GOP from parroting all these old attacks from the podium as if all of them aren’t staler than a loaf of bread buried at Pompeii.

Considering that facing down Trey Gowdy’s Select Committee on Benghazi during a grueling 11 hours of testimony was probably Hillary Clinton’s best moment of the last year, I’m not sure why the GOP would want to bring this all up again. But then, it’s not meant to appeal to the general public. It’s meant to rile up those conservatives who can hear the frequency at which the dog whistle is pitched.

Night 2: Some sort of presentation detailing Bill Clinton’s sexual history. Which has always been such a boon to Republicans, who threw it at the Big Dog during his two presidential runs and all through his administration.

Think about this. Back in 1998, Republicans in Congress impeached Bill Clinton for lying about a sexual affair with a White House interns. Three months later, the GOP got crushed in the midterm elections, at levels nearly unheard of for the party not occupying the White House in a midterm occurring during a president’s second term. Clinton’s approval rating hit a high point of 73 percent immediately afterwards, and was still above 60 percent when he left office two years later. In other words, none of his sexual history, which got a pretty thorough airing back in the 1990s, seemed to affect how people felt about him. The public decided long ago, rightly or wrongly, that the women making some of the allegations were not credible.

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http://www.salon.com/2016/07/15/bengazhi_bill_clintons_scandals_republicans_poised_to_break_out_their_greatest_hits_at_convention_circus/