Hillary Clinton has emerged unscathed from the Benghazi “inquisition”. In owning up squarely to mistakes made in not beefing up security at the embassy in 2012 when she was secretary of state, she has enhanced her reputation as a politician who is not shifty on key issues. The events at the bipartisan House Select Committee hearing were bound to be extremely political because November 2016 is nearing and the presidential election is virtually round the corner. Had she been seen as a dithering politician trying to pass the buck for the loss of the US ambassador and his aides, the hearing could have hurt the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.
Ms Clinton is now the candidate to beat. It is possible to foresee a Clinton as favourite to be in the White House again even if Hillary has done herself no favours by using a private server for her emails, which will now stay as the nagging issue facing her campaign. Donald Trump appears to still have the momentum to gain the Republican nomination even if the pundits think otherwise. The slivers of doubt over Ms Clinton winning the Democratic nomination may have completely disappeared the moment she emerged from a record 11-hour grilling over a security faux pas. Her earlier strong performance in the Democratic debate, where she dominated Senator Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden dropping out have only reinforced her position for a place in the White House where earlier she was a resident as First Lady.
