According to a new poll released this week by Rasmussen Reports, '51% Think Benghazi Merits Further Investigation, 34% Disagree.'

Tweet

The American people don’t really care about Benghazi, right? 

In the juvenile words of former Obama Administration National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor to Fox News’s Bret Baier this week, “Dude, this was, like, two years ago.”  Or as Hillary Clinton infamously shrieked, “At this point, what difference does it make?” 

It’s a distraction.  A political circus.  Nothing to see there.  Move along. 

To date, numerous observers have cogently and correctly detailed why the continuing Benghazi scandal should matter. 

Among other reasons, Americans simply have the right in our representative democracy to understand the nature of deadly terrorist attacks against our overseas diplomats and consulates.  They also have a right to know, particularly during a critical election year like 2012, how a sitting president and his administration performed before, during and after the attacks that resulted in the first murder of an American ambassador in over three decades.  Americans also have the right to know precisely why, as we are just now discovering, the White House concealed documents explicitly using the term “Benghazi” and instructing officials to falsely attribute the attacks to a YouTube video. 

Unfortunately, although Benghazi clearly should matter, months of dismissal and obfuscation by the Obama Administration, its political supporters and its media enablers created the disturbing impression that it doesn’t matter to most Americans. 

Even conservative and libertarian commentators like Jonah Goldberg have expressed resignation in that critical regard: 

“Steve Hayes observed how there’s much more interest in Benghazi among the general public than the MSM [main stream media] realizes.  He mentioned that when he gives speeches he’s constantly asked about it.  I absolutely believe him.  Steve is closely associated with the Benghazi story; I’m not.  But when I give speeches to conservative groups, I am often grilled by people with very sophisticated questions about assets in the region, CIA chatter, etc.  I can only imagine how much more of this stuff Steve gets.  And while I agree with him that this is a sign that the questions aren’t going away, I’m not sure this story is of huge interest to the majority of Americans…  Don’t get me wrong, I’d love it if outrage over Benghazi was a national obsession.  It’s not.” 

Actually, there’s substantive, quantitative news to report on this front. 

As it turns out, the American public does continue to care. 

According to a new poll released this week by Rasmussen Reports, “51% Think Benghazi Merits Further Investigation, 34% Disagree”: 

“Most voters suspect the Obama Administration hasn’t been completely forthcoming about how it reacted to the murder of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and several other Americans in Benghazi, Libya.  Just over half think the Benghazi matter deserves further investigation.  Only 32% of likely U.S. voters are satisfied with the administration’s explanation of its response to the Benghazi situation in September 2012, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.  Fifty percent (50%) are not satisfied with the administration’s explanation.  Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure.” 

Moreover, that new Rasmussen survey reflects a surprisingly durable public sentiment.  In a similar Gallup poll conducted a year ago, 53% of Americans reported that they were following the Benghazi matter “very closely” or “somewhat closely.” 

Those Gallup and Rasmussen results are even more remarkable considering the mainstream media’s continuing habit of minimizing and dismissing the scandal. 

According to the Media Research Center this week, “On Monday, the three network morning shows allocated 12 minutes and 24 seconds to Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but only CBS This Morning reported House Speaker John Boehner on Friday announcing a new investigation into Benghazi – a news brief that totaled a mere 47 seconds.” 

One can only imagine survey data on the matter if the media had bothered to cover it as it deserves.  Or, perhaps more to the point, if a Republican president presided over the attack and political coverup. 

Nevertheless, it’s an encouraging sign that the American public not only expresses concern, but prefers continued investigation.  That should encourage Congressional leaders and media to get to the bottom of this important matter.