Although the MSM has been covering it, and making it an upper-importance story, you still might have missed that yesterday Secretary of State Clinton took full responsibility for the failure of security at the Benghazi safe house.

Not Egypt or its failure of security, mind you: just the Benghazi one. Where people died. And the MSM learned more in ten minutes than the government in four weeks.

There now: all wrapped up, all taken care of, nothing to see here. Let us move on, and focus our efforts on re-electing President Obama!

Not quite. And certainly not so fast.

The acceptance of responsibility—among the very few offered in the last four years—is indeed notable, but it rings more than a little hollow. Nevertheless, it is quite surprising: if indeed Hillary Clinton is planning her own run for presidency in 2016 (as rumored by every single person that has met her in person), this admission of failure (the worst of its kind since the 1970s) has planted a giving tree in the yard of every Democrat and Republican opponent.

Why would she do this, especially since Clinton aides acknowledge that she lawyered up and was ready to deliver some sort of bombshell evidence—as if blackmailing the President of the United States is itself a good move?

There is no question that the one this benefits the most is President Obama. But it hardly lets him off the hook: after all, if a Secretary of State were to utterly embarrass the President without his knowledge, get a few Americans killed in the process, and then point the finger at the President for four weeks a little before Election Day, you might think that a resignation would be in order.

Of course, a resignation two weeks before Election Day is disastrous, too, isn’t it? Had some under-secretary taken the fall in mid-September, Clinton could have quietly resigned and immediately made it clear that she intends to run in 2016. Meanwhile, she gives full support to President Obama, who appoints John Kerry an interim SoS. Damage mitigated and a possible bounce in the polls as Clinton and Obama are now seen to campaign and work together.

But as has been the case time and again with the President, there was a red zone fumble and turnover. The President made it clear within hours that Libya was not important to him. When it blew up and the horrors that followed became public, he tapdanced to the old tune that America was at fault. When this, too, failed, he tried to convince everyone that it was someone else’s fault. Again and again and again. And finally, when no one was buying any of it, they found themselves trapped by their own dimwitted deceit: come clean, a little bit, have an underling apologize, and move on.

All of this proves damaging to the President, the Presidency, and the Campaign. Had he done the right thing, he might have enjoyed a little bounce in the polls. But once again, he tried to convince everyone that he could outwit us, failing to realize for the umpteenth time that acting smart is not the same thing as being smart.

What a screw up. And like Fast and Furious, Americans are dead and survivors will not get answers.

Update: Drew at Ace of Spades has a very plausible explanation worth your attention.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.