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by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton spent all day Thursday in a congressional hearings over her handling of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, however, it seemed the nationally televised spectacle was unlikely to hurt her White House bid.
Clinton was then secretary of state when the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was attacked on the night of Sept. 11, in which four people were killed, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
A congressional investigation has been ongoing over the last few years over how Clinton handled the attack and its aftermath. The investigation uncovered an email sent by Clinton the day after the attack to Egypt's prime minister, in which Clinton wrote that it was clear the attack was a terrorist strike.
Yet over the following week, the Obama administration publicly put forth a narrative that the attack was the result of a protest that became violent, sparked by an anti-Islamic film made in the U.S..
Critics said Clinton and the Obama administration went with the narrative for political purposes. The 2012 presidential elections, in which President Barack Obama was campaigning for re-election, were less than two months away, and the administration did not want to be seen as having dropped the ball on terrorism.
Republican members of the House Select Committee on Benghazi Thursday also grilled Clinton on why around 600 requests for more security at the Benghazi compound, in the year prior to the attack, seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Clinton's defenders said the attacks are nothing more than Republican rancor in a bid to cast a negative shadow on the Democratic front runner in the 2016 race to the White House.
Whatever the case, experts said the hearings are unlikely to harm Clinton's run for the presidency, contending that those who like Clinton will judge the situation in her favor.
Moreover, experts said the events during the night of the attack and the days following are too complex to appeal to the average American voters, as there are multiple timelines and myriad details that make many people's eyes glaze over.
Indeed, many of those voting in presidential elections are what political scientists bill "low information voters" who only spend an average of a minute or two per month researching candidates. Many have neither the time in their busy lives nor the desire to wade through the complexities of the attack and its aftermath.
In U.S. elections, personality counts most, and it is a candidate's ability to connect with voters that wins. Scandals can often be forgiven, if the public likes the candidate, experts noted.
"I think Secretary Clinton's performance (at the hearings Thursday) was very reassuring to potential supporters," Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress told Xinhua.
Combined with her adept performance in the recent Democratic debate and the decision by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden not to seek the Democratic nomination, it was a very solid week for Clinton, he added.
"It has certainly restored a sense of inevitability to her campaign," he added.
The Benghazi story involves much complexity, and the tragic narrative of that day has been reviewed by so many investigations that the American public, beyond the Republican base, will not see this congressional investigation as much more than a political exercise, he said.
Mahaffee added that there is such antipathy for Clinton in the Republican base that it makes going after Hillary and her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, very attractive for energizing Republican voters and the base.
But on the other hand, for the wider American public, which is concerned about practical governance of the country, these scandals are just distractions that end up preventing the Republican Party from demonstrating its plan for the country, should a Republican get elected, he said.
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