[mezz]

The whole thing (the lead up, the unpreparedness, the cover-up) at this point looks to me to be about a 50/50 split between incompetence and politics. The neglect of security comes from a dysfunctioning state department but is allowed to exist in this dysfunctional state due to naive and failing polices set from the top which deprioritize such things as security against terror (because the admin started believing their own bullshit claims about having defeated al-queda and having put terrorists on the run). Now the cover-up is pure politics designed to cover the president's ass both in the leadup to an election and then beyond if necessary. Obama's been winging it in this job for a full term. His main strategy is 'hope': "Hope that bad shit doesn't happen, and scramble to cover it up if it does" - because there is no concrete plan to deal with this stuff, just a vague kind of faith that Obama's policy of cow-tow to our enemies will cause them to stop hating us and stop attacking us. When it doesn't work, because it's a hopelessly naive and stupid policy to begin with, the admin can only spin and cover. That is, pathetically enough, really all they've got.