As stated in an article at NPR this morning, Today is one of the most important days of Hillary Clinton's political career, as the Democratic presidential candidate will face grilling for as much as eight hours potentially over the 2012 terror attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. So far, it is a positive day for Mrs. Clinton's future.

A Washington Post transcript of the morning session can be seen here.

A live blog from NPR appears here as the proceedings got started, providing observations regarding individual statements and questions from the committee.

The hearings continued just as this blog reports they began, political bickering. It is certainly reasonable to assume that they hearings would have started with the same bickering had Rep McCarthy's gaffe not energized the Democrats on the Committee, but I don't think so. The Committee had credibility before those remarks, now it does not. And the Democrats on the Committee at this hearing are jumping on that loss of credibility. My perception is that they are having some success with this strategy, but the overriding reaction to the morning round is one of embarrassment. As an American citizen I am embarrassed that supposedly responsible legislative leaders in this country handle serious issues this way at all, much less in public view.

The morning round highlights:

Hillary Clinton's composure.

The Committee's lack of composure.

The questions so far indicates this committee was a waste of time and money.

Hillary Clinton is the big winner of the morning. This will re-energize her campaign and may be what she needs to become the next President of the United States.

The net, net of today so far is this:

The truth of what happened on 9/11/12 is pretty clear, but constant debates continue on the committee and into the future, much like the JFK assassination continues to be debated even after all the facts are in. That is an awful truth about America in the 20th and 21st centuries. Absolute truth is avoided for relative truth.

Nothing new that will hurt Mrs. Clinton's presidential aspirations has been presented. The opposite effect is more likely.

What was the reason for the Benghazi attacks? It was a premeditated terrorist attack. The Obama Administration, and Sec. Clinton, said it was a video. They purposely exaggerated the video for political reasons 41 days before Pres Obama's 2012 re-election.

Why could the US not send military support during the attack? Sec. Clinton said it was because Libya didn't want us to. Host countries are supposed to protect our diplomats, they were incapable of that protection. So, we send in diplomats without the ability to support them, unacceptable. Maybe we don't send special forces into Russia if this happens in St. Petersburg, but Libya is a different issue.

The Democrat members of the committee did not ask questions, they made statements.

The passionate statements by the Democrats highlighting the partisan nature of this committee and how they never went after Reagan about Beirut or to other problems like this was at least disingenuous and more accurately an outright lie. Every Democrat committee and special prosecutor established has been for political purposes. One has only to review the Bush Administration to see that. They put a whole team together to investigate the Bush administration because of the supposed leak of a CIA operatives name. Today, that same thing was mentioned in the testimony being done by a Democrat and the whole thing was ignored. And, if you go back to the Reagan Administration, this type of political targeting is completely obvious as well, remember Justice Thomas. This self righteous posturing is disgusting and should be obvious and repulsive to the American public who have to listen to it.

The Democrat members of the committee obviously had a strategy to make Trey Gowdy the point of the hearings not Sec. Clinton. They are being very successful. Gowdy is defensive, Clinton is not.

Did we learn anything new about Benghazi - unfortunately no.