The big news from last night? Hillary Clinton has stepped up and taken full responsibility for the debacle that was Benghazi. And it was a debacle in every sense of the word. From failing to provide security that the embassy requested despite multiple attacks before the 9/11 assaults, to the Obama administration’s repeated claims that this was a spontaneous protest and not an act of terrorism, this was a nightmare for Obama. It made him look like the weak, ineffectual president that he is.

During the vice presidential debate, Joe Biden made the idiotic move of claiming that the White House never received requests for extra security or notifications of ongoing attacks from the State Department. This put Hillary Clinton in a bind, and forced her to choose how to play her next hand.

If only Obama and Biden had been smart enough to know that they were dealing with political masterminds in the Clintons. Hillary’s response was to take full responsibility for everything that’s happened with Benghazi.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday tried to douse a political firestorm over the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, saying she’s responsible for the security of American diplomatic outposts.

“I take responsibility,” Clinton said during a visit to Peru. “I’m in charge of the State Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn’t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They’re the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision.”

But she said an investigation now under way will ultimately determine what happened at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, where Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed on September 11.

“I take this very personally,” Clinton said. “So we’re going to get to the bottom of it, and then we’re going to do everything we can to work to prevent it from happening again, and then we’re going to work to bring whoever did this to us to justice.”

Good to know that an investigation is underway a mere five weeks later.

Anyway, at first glance, this certainly appears to be a case of Hillary Clinton taking the fall to cover Barack Obama. And Obama surely felt relieved when she did it. But I suspect this is going to come back to haunt him even more. Hillary was backed into a corner, and she played her hand brilliantly. It’s almost funny, because if Biden hadn’t opened his big mouth and said something stupid (again), Hillary probably wouldn’t have had to knife Obama in the back. But she was left with no choice, and what she did was genius.

Consider: she stepped forward and accepted responsibility when no one else would. She seemingly protected her president, which gives her political cover for 2016 among the Obama fans. But it also made Obama look weak, foolish, and unwilling to act as a true leader by accepting responsibility for what ultimately was his mistake (it’s his administration, after all). Remember Hillary’s 3AM phone call ad? It shows that she was right. It showed that she is the true leader in an administration where no one, and I mean literally no one, is willing to step up. And now Obama is forced to act. And whatever he does will have serious repercussions. He can’t fire Hillary — that would be political suicide. But neither can he let her stay.

Hillary warned that Obama would be a president who wouldn’t take responsibility for his actions, and lo and behold, that’s exactly what has happened. Rather than standing behind his promise that “the buck stops here”, he’s refused to investigate the attack, lied about how it happened, and put the blame on anyone but himself. Contrast that with Hillary, the strong leader who is willing to stand up and take responsibility for her mistakes — always popular with voters — and who comes out looking better?

Obama is the one backed into a corner now, and unfortunately for him, he’s nowhere near the political genius that the Clintons are. This just makes him look worse underneath the facade of covering for him.

Well played, Ms. Clinton. Well played.