The Benghazi debate kerfuffle has some readers suspicious. Kevin Mitchell writes:

Why would Obama look at Candy Crowley and tell her to "Get the transcript"? Did he mean right then and there, for a staffer to go print it off and bring it back for everyone to read? Or did he know that she was going to use that line to defend him when the inevitable question arose . . .? See where I'm going with this. And then he asked her to "say it louder" when she defended his Rose Garden reference. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were in some kind of cahoots.

If you look at the transcript, it supports the idea that Obama expected help from Crowley but not the idea that Crowley was acting in a deliberately or blatantly partisan way. In this column's view, Obama took advantage of her, and she made a serious but honest mistake in trying to play "fact checker."

One reason we're disinclined to ascribe partisan motives to Crowley is that the exchange actually began with her asking Obama a potentially embarrassing pointed question: "Does the buck stop with your secretary of state as far as what went on here?" The president replies:

Secretary Clinton has done an extraordinary job. But she works for me. I'm the president and I'm always responsible, and that's why nobody's more interested in finding out exactly what happened than I do.

The day after the attack, Governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people in the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. That this was an act of terror and I also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime.

Obama continues for a bit, and when Romney's turn comes, he expresses incredulity at the president's claim about his Sept. 12 speech: "You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you're saying?"

Obama's response: "Please proceed, Governor."