Reading between the lines, this is headed towards a conclusion that partisan hacks on both sides will be extremely unhappy with.
Cui Bono. Start at the beginning. This is a story way outside of politics if you look at it with an eye unfiltered by politics. Now the song and dance between the Democrats and Republicans (and their associated media lapdogs on both sides) is an utter farce that misses literally everything important about the situation entirely.
Think :
(1) The consulate (note : not an embassy), was very very clearly a CIA-run base running on extremely thin State Department cover. Accepting that fact, what do you suppose their mission was leading up to this event?
(2) Tactical decisions, and in-theatre operational command virtually never has anything to do with either the Executive branch nor even the State Department. The command structure is built for a certain necessary level of autonomy with an accepted overall mission, and with trigger points that will send information up and down to react to larger events.
(3) The reaction to the attacks, specifically the lack of intervention during and after, is an extreme red flag that is very revealing, but not in the way that many hacks believe it to be. Remember, in-field military and intelligence protocol and decisions are not handled from the Executive level outside of extremely rare situations. Given that the current administration is keen to send waves of drones even in defiance of treaties, to the level of causing major diplomatic problems with our supposed allies such as Pakistan, this is an utterly bizarre and absolute reversal on every level. Viewing that, it's a decision that was obviously made very purposefully, and came from a section of command that made that decision in order to prevent further exposure to the assets in play.
(4) In continuation of that train, it literally makes zero sense as a command decision from the perspective of POTUS to NOT respond with maximum force to the news of the attack, EVEN if they did in fact think it was related to that idiotic video (which did in fact case many many many dozens of violent protests in a great many locations). Either way, the logical thing to do would be to immediately respond in full. Yes this did not happen. Why do you suppose that is? Quite obviously because the actual story about the clandestine operations and assets in play mandated the minimization of the situation by all possible means, and deference was given to CIA on the issue.
Politics dirties the clear viewing of this situation. Personally, I am a classical conservative who detests the majority of what Obama and his allies have done, particularly of late. Assaulting the 2nd amendment, busting the budget, the ludicrous ACA, very poor record on protecting civil liberties, poor transparency, and so on.
That said, it's utterly idiotic to look at the situation and think what the current FNC talking points are :
State department ignored threats, put people at risk, didn't try to rescue them, then tried to 'cover it up' for political reasons. None of that makes sense, because of the reasons above. Number one, they knew damned well what they were doing (that's why they were in Benghazi anyway, even though it's not remotely as important geopolitically as Tripoli). Number two, the people at risk were for the most part there to serve, and understood their mission, though one can fairly say that one civilian was possibly over his head. Number three, it makes zero sense NOT to rescue them, or attempt rescue, if you are looking at the situation through a political lens.
Think about it from the political perspective if you want, and ask yourself : through the prism of the '12 election, would Obama have looked bad if he had launched a full armed response to the attack, complete with scrambled air support, armed drones, and exfil? Even if the rescue was only moderately successful (given the relatively weak nature of the attackers, it probably would have been incredibly successful), it would have been neutral at best during the election, and given the media spin, probably a net positive for Obama. Yet no rescue order came, when this POTUS has shown to be almost reckless with his trigger finger.