terms of benghazi, it is very easy to make the sort of one-sided criticism. republicans have had in the post-bush era trouble formulating what their foreign policy stand is. what the party is for. this was a subject of debate in terms of the mitt romney candidacy. this was one of the areas he was extremely proactive. he was extremely hawkish. so the answer, that is a long answer to no, i do not think it's any different. >> john, what's interesting is obviously two parties are involved in all of this. but this is really a debate because we have a democratic president and a lot of these ideas about civil liberties tend to find harbor on the left. this is a debate that democrats i think need to wrap their heads around. everyone needs to have, we all need to have a position about what we are okay with and what we are not. but this is something that the president is really speaking to his base. as jonathan chait points out,