Benghazi hearing clears Hillary Clinton's path to nomination

THE only new information gleaned from Hillary Clinton's Congressional hearing on the September, 2012 attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, is that she loves Indian food, which she promptly ordered after her 11-hour ordeal on October 22!

Four Americans, including the US Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, a friend of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, died in the attack by Islamic militants. Secretary Clinton took responsibility for the security lapses. This was the eighth hearing on the Benghazi attack held by the majority Congressional Republicans, the second with Hillary as the witness.

The Congressional Republicans invested enormous amount of time, and taxpayers' money hoping to destroy Clinton's presidential aspirations through the Benghazi hearings. Things did not quite go their way. Actually, the hearing was doomed before it started.

In Washington, a gaffe is defined as the truth a politician utters unwittingly. On September 29, Republican Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, presented Hillary with the ultimate gift of gaffe. McCarthy told Fox News: "Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustworthy. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought."  To the chagrin of the Republicans, New York Republican Congressman, Richard Hanna, backed McCarthy's inadvertent admission, stressing that the Benghazi panel was designed to target Clinton.

The latest Benghazi hearing was doomed to fail. Republicans' expectations were a pie in the sky. They hoped to prove the preposterous: that Hillary Clinton was negligent at best, and in collusion with the militants at worst!  The fact is, after the killing of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya was a dangerous place. But when the US Embassy in Libya requested funding for more security, it was the Republicans in Congress that denied the request.

Republicans also attempted to make hay with Hillary's personal email server.  They hoped to prove that Clinton compromised national security by using a personal email server at home.  That "indiscretion" will land Hillary in jail, predicted the "savant" Ben Carson. The fact is no national security was breached.  Every reasonable person could relate to what Clinton did; she took work home, for which she should be commended, not condemned!

The actual hearing was full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Republican Congressmen were rude to Hillary. It was more an inquisition than an inquiry.  Republicans hoped that their verbal assault would intimidate Hillary. But, they forgot that they were dealing with a two-term US Senator from New York, and a very successful one-term Secretary of State. Hillary deftly parried their blows, and sometimes like AB de Villiers, hit the ball for a six!  

The Republicans stretched the hearing to 11 hours, hoping that Hillary would tire, and like Zinedine Zidane's head-butt in the extra time of the 2006 World Cup final, do or say something dumb. No such luck! Hillary kept her composure in the face of incessant insults. Even the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump conceded that the hearing was partisan. At the end of the hearing, the Chairman of the Benghazi panel, Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, admitted that nothing new transpired from the latest Benghazi hearing. In other words, it was a walkover for Hillary Clinton!

With the two road blocks – Benghazi hearing and email controversy – removed, Hillary Clinton's path to the Democratic Party's presidential nomination is now smooth. She has token opposition: former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, and the independent Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders. Nationally, O'Malley polls around 5 percent among Democrats, Sanders around 31 percent and Hillary Clinton around 62 percent.  That is in sharp contrast with the latest poll of Republican candidates which finds Ben Carson at 29 percent, Donald Trump at 23 percent, Marco Rubio at 11 percent, Ted Cruz at 10 percent and Jeb Bush at 8 percent. While the Republican field shows no clear leader, Hillary Clinton is a frontrunner among Democrats.

Hillary Clinton should not celebrate just yet. Eight years ago, Hillary was labelled "the inevitable nominee" with a commanding lead. Then Barack Obama happened. It is incredible how super intelligent people can make dumb mistakes.

Many people who watched then Illinois State Senator Barack Hussein Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston at the invitation of the nominee John Kerry (when Obama said: "We are not Republican America or Democratic America, black America or white America; we are the United States of America!") predicted that Obama would be elected President someday. Yet, the Clinton campaign ignored the Obama threat.  

Hillary Clinton's strategist and pollster was the Harvard and Columbia-educated Mark Penn. He had just written a book, "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes." He was considered a genius and the best political prognosticator. He advised Hillary not to compete in the Caucus states, and to concentrate on the primary states. That strategy was a blunder. It cost Hillary the nomination. 

In thirteen US states the Democrats select their delegates for the presidential nominees though caucusing. Voters meet in arenas like town houses and select delegates for candidates through voting. The rest of the states hold primaries where voters go to the polling stations and cast their vote for the candidate of their choice just as in any other election.  

Hillary Clinton participated in the Iowa caucus where she finished third; Obama won.  Senator Clinton lost Iowa because she had voted to authorise the 2003 Iraq war. Illinois State Senator Barack Obama had opposed the war. Astonishingly, Hillary Clinton's campaign believed that her nomination was so "inevitable" that they skipped most of the remaining caucus states.

Although during the second half of her 2008 Democratic campaign Hillary Clinton won more delegates than Barack Obama in the primary states, because Obama scooped up all the delegates from those caucus states, he won the Democratic nomination.

Hillary Clinton has learnt her lesson from 2008. Mark Penn is gone from her campaign! With little competition, this time around, Hillary really is the inevitable nominee.

The writer is a Rhodes Scholar.