On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, BBC America Washington
correspondent Katty Kay dismissed the electoral impact of the Obama
administration's mishandling of the crisis in the Middle East: "I'm not
sure that who said what, when, and when the intelligence came out...I'm
not sure that that's going to be a huge issue for voters in the course
of this election." [Listen to the audio [1]]
However, she did bemoan the fact that ongoing chaos in the region may blunt Obama campaign attacks against Mitt Romney: "It
does mean that it's harder for the White House to keep focusing on what
was a pretty disastrous response from the Romney campaign initially. So
it kind of draws a line under that." And what of the "pretty disastrous response" by the President of the United States?
Kay's sentiment was certainly in line with NBC special correspondent Tom Brokaw [2], who on Friday's Today argued "Romney's missteps really have given the President more camouflage than he would have expected" on the crisis.
Here is a transcript of Kay's September 30 comments:
11:23AM ET
(...)
DAVID GREGORY: Katty Kay, a lot of questions now in this debate, in
this campaign about this administration's handling of what is still in
parts, in places, a chaotic Middle East transitioning.
KATTY
KAY: Yes. Certainly, I think on – on the issue of Libya, actually, I'm
not sure that who said what, when, and when the intelligence came out,
as, you know, David Plouffe was – kept talking about the intelligence
community and what they knew about Libya, I'm not sure that that's going
to be a huge issue for voters in the course of this election. It feels
to me like, you know, a short-term issue in terms of American voters. It
does mean that it's harder for the White House to keep focusing on what
was a pretty disastrous response from the Romney campaign initially. So
it kind of draws a line under that. But in terms of American leadership
more broadly in the Middle East, I mean, the – the situation that –
that Richard [Engel] pointed out was – was very clear. There's a – a
lot of confusion, and it's not easy for American leadership.
(...)