Jennifer Rubin (WPost): Benghazi Big Deal After All

"The spin that the American people aren’t interested in Benghazi or that it’s only Republicans who think something is fishy isn’t faring too well in a plethora of other polls," writes Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post.

The newest Post/ABC poll finds: “Last year’s deadly attack on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, is shaping up as a real political problem for President Obama, with concern extending well beyond the conservative base. More than half of Americans say his administration is trying to cover up the facts of the attack.” Asked if the White House is engaged in a cover-up, 56 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents say yes.

From the latest Fox News poll (figures for independents are in parenthesis):

• 75 percent (77 percent of independents) are following closely or somewhat closely the scandal;
• voters’ approval of President Obama’s handling trails disapproval 32 to 53 percent (29 to 54 percent for independents);
• 60 percent (same for independents) think there was a cover-up;
• 62 percent (60 percent of independents) think the president could have done more to help Americans; and
• by a 50-to-37 percent margin (54-to-28 percent for independents), they think the misstatements were political, not to protect national security.

CNN shows voters disapprove of Obama’s handling of the Benghazi scandal by a 53-to-42 percent margin. Among independents, 58 percent disapprove. CNN is an outlier, however, on whether the administration misled the public intentionally, finding only 44 percent (and 44 percent of independents) think it did. But there, too, 84 percent of all voters and 80 percent of independents think it is important or very important to get to the bottom of it. Fifty-nine percent of all voters and 58 percent of independents think the attack could have been prevented. Only 37 percent of all voters and 37 percent of independents think the GOP is overplaying its hand.

More troublesome for the left in all these polls is the growing distrust of government, no doubt a result of the cumulative impact of Benghazi, the Internal Revenue Service and the media-spying scandals. ... Give the public some credit. With most of the media ignoring Benghazi until recently and non-stop spin from the administration and its liberal enablers disparaging those seeking answers, the voters have figured out that it really does matter what happened and if our leaders lied to them.