Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said late on Monday that the buck stops with her when it comes to diplomatic security, not the White House.
Why Republicans Aren’t Attacking Hillary Clinton over Benghazi
On Sunday’s talk shows, Republicans remained indignant about Joe Biden‘s statement in last week’s debate that “we did not know” about requests for more security to protect the U.S. consulate in Benghazi shortly before the attack …
The Benghazi Attack: A Bigger Question Missed by All the Finger-Pointing
The facts of the case are this: a Sept. 11 attack carried out by armed extremists in Benghazi, Libya, took the lives of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Nearly everything else is unclear. Given that it took the …
Will Obama Bounce Back or Fall Below His Floor?
In early June, shortly after President Obama stumbled in a press conference by saying, “the private sector is doing fine,” his senior White House and campaign aides began an e-mail chain among one another. It listed all the other …
Moderator Role Under Scrutiny Before Second Presidential Debate
In a rare example of political unity, both the Romney and Obama campaigns have expressed concern to the Commission on Presidential Debates about how the moderator of this Tuesday’s town hall has publicly described her role, TIME has learned.
Morning Must Reads: Real
- Obama works on a new debating style.
- Reconciling the state and national polls.
- The New York Times in Real ‘Merica.
The Lohan Effect: Will Romney Get a Boost from Low-Information Voters?
As his standing in the polls improves, Mitt Romney is piling up public endorsements from a new cohort of voters: the celebrity-train-wreck set.
The Abrasive Moderate: The Death of Arlen Specter (1930–2012)
He was one of the best U.S. Senators of our era, but the end of Specter’s career was an object lesson in political transformation — and the extinction of Republican moderation
In the ArenaLibya
Benghazi: The October Mirage
For the life of me, I can’t understand why the Republicans are harping so hard on the Benghazi security debacle–except, maybe, you know…politics. There is no reason, or evidence, that the request of a consulate–or even an embassy–for beefed up security would ever get anywhere near the President’s desk. It may have reached the lower …
Defense Secretary Panetta Sounds Alarm on Cyberwar Threat
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued what he said is a “clarion call” Thursday for Americans to wake up to the growing threat posed by cyber war.
“The whole point of this is that we simply don’t just sit back and wait for a goddamn crisis to happen,” Panetta told Time. “In this country we tend to do that, and that’s a …
Watching the Vice-Presidential Debate — with the Sound Off
I watched the first presidential debate on mute, and the candidates’ body language was telling, just like the debate experts say it should be. So I decided to not listen to anything the vice presidential candidates said either. …
Political Pictures of the Week, Oct. 5-11
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures of the past week from the Beltway and beyond.
What Happened at the Vice-Presidential Debate
2 minutes. They lock eyes from across the room, and neither man can look away. Big flag pin and little flag pin. Bulky suit and fitted suit. Lots of hair and little hair. A match is made, a connection struck. Their whitened …