Karl Rove and his desperate minions have decided that the only chance they would have to defeat a Hillary Clinton candidacy in 2016 is to smear her good name -- and they have started early. Having nothing else, they are trying to turn the Benghazi tragedy into some kind of scandal, and paint Clinton as the ogre behind that scandal. But it's a pathetic attempt, and not even supported by some in their own party.As the above graphic shows, Republican Robert Gates (appointed by President Bush to be Secretary of Defense) says he would have handled the situation the same way if he had still been in office, and scoffed at the idea that then Secretary of State Clinton had done anything wrong or been involved in any kind of cover-up. He even labeled the ideas that some Republicans have of what should have been done as "cartoonish".
And a Public Policy Polling survey (conducted of 576 voters between May 10th and 12th -- with a margin of error of 4.1 points) shows that the public is not buying into the silly idea that Benghazi is a scandal that will hurt Hillary Clinton. The survey shows that Hillary is still viewed far more favorably (52%) than the congressional Republicans (36%). And the views on Benghazi are also telling:
IS BENGHAZI THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY?
Yes...............23%
No...............65%
Unsure...............13%
DO YOU TRUST HILLARY CLINTON OR CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS MORE ON BENGHAZI?
Clinton...............49%
Republicans...............39%
Unsure...............11%
In addition 18% more voters said it was more important to pass immigration reform than to investigate Benghazi, and 9% more said it was more important to close the loopholes in background checks for gun purchasers. Try as they might, the GOP is just not getting any traction on trying to use Benghazi to smear Hillary Clinton.
