The latest Campaign Moment — Senator Clinton’s now debunked claim that she dodged sniper fire in Tuzla, a mistake blamed on sleep deprivation — really is pretty hilarious, for those who may still have a sense of humor about, to steal a phrase, Indecision 2008.
Clinton’s current position on the subject is, in itself, funny, and also in my opinion gracious and revealing of a good political touch:
“I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I’m human, which, you know, for some people is a revelation.”
Here is a good debunking:
Here is some of the commentary. From Matthew Yglesias: “Presumably her plan is to be well-rested during her freaky 3AM phone calls.” From The War Diaries of Hillary Clinton: “As bullets clawed the air around us and screams echoed down the rubble-strewn tarmac, I felt almost peaceful.” And so on.
Incidentally, it appears Senator Obama is related to Brad Pitt and that Senator Clinton is related to Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Camilla Parker-Bowles, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
A weird/dumb blunder, no question. But I really wonder why we are so hellishly intent here at BMG on shining spotlights on the errors of the dem candidates, when John McCain is out there voting for torture, mistaking Sunnis for Shias, and licking the asses of real hate hurling clergy like John Hagee and Rod Parsley.
I agree with you, Laurel that this weird blunder on Clinton’s part is less damaging to the nation than a vote to support torture, or conflating Iran with Al Qaeda, or the “hate hurling” of Hagee and Parsley. I agree that this is stupid but, the problem is that it is horrifically self-inflicted.
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p>For the life of me, I can’t understand why she made this up. And repeated it several times over several months. Why she and her campaign rather snidely dismissed the comedian Sinbad’s (Sinbad!) correct recollection when originally pressed. I just don’t get it. All this was so avoidable.
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p>You know I am an Obama supporter, but I take no comfort in watching a good candidate self-destruct. I actually believe this is not survivable for her. She can survive harsh attacks, she can come back from low poll numbers, or from primary losses, but I don’t believe she can’t combat ridicule based on her own public exaggerations.
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p>On MyDD some HRC supporters are gnashing their teeth and predicting that this will cut into her support from the PA Murtha voters – white vets who might otherwise swing her way. I think they’re right on this.
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p>I would hate to see it end this way. But, jeez, she has to do more than make that somewhat flip comment as an answer to this, and she can’t simply try to change the subject, this thing is too laden with joke material of which she is the butt. This is a problem that sticks because it completely changes the national narrative on her from a tough fighter (at home and in Tuzla) to an object of ridicule. This is as bad for her as Katrina was for Bush. It’s a pivot point in her story, and it’s not good.
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p>I hope I’m wrong about this for Hillary Clinton. I believe Obama will be our party’s nominee. But I’d rather have it because Obama wins, not because Hillary self-destructed on a ridiculous lie about sniper fire.
this will be an unsurmountable error for Clinton, perhaps not. But the diary presents it as just another gratuitous laff at our dumb candidates.
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p>now back to our regularly scheduled lack of focus on the real opposition. you know, the guy who says we could be in iraq 100 years.
They had an abbreviated welcoming ceremony for some reason. The Secret Service covering Hillary so tightly shows that they were concerned about something. The Air Force doesn’t do cork-screw landing for fun.
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p>It probably meant a lot to the folks and American troops around Tuzla that the First Lady and Chelsea stopped by to support the U.S. efforts there.
Per the plane’s pilot.
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p>Par for the Prevaricacious Pair.
“Don’t you think she looks tired?”
She’s the one who blamed the mistake (made on four separate occasions in different venues) on sleep deprivation.
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p>Or maybe you are making some other argument. If so, perhaps you could please be more clear.
Furious with [fictional Prime Minister] Harriet Jones, the Doctor warned her he could bring her down with just six words, which he whispered to her aide: “Don’t you think she looks tired?” Soon she was fending off rumors of ill-health and was facing a vote of no confidence.
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p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H…
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I thought the latest campaign moment was Obama’s hard work to shut up the people of Michigan and Florida, and Hillary continuing effort to give them a voice at the convention while meeting Obama’s many, many objections. I guess I’m not getting the right press releases…
I wrote as much when I promoted a comment somewhere. My basic point was that these back and forths are so ridiculous they are funny, to anyone who still has a sense of humor about this contest. I mean, who really cares if Hillary ducked and ran for cover or kissed a child on the tarmac. The important question is how does her record compare to that of Obama’s and what are her actions likely to be as President compared to him. This stuff here is just show biz.
Keep it up, those of you who want “party unity”, an end to those contentious primaries, etc.
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p>Here’s a comment from the “Real Clear Politics” blog:
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p>”Mark Halperin makes a good point about the double standard at play here. Why has the Obama campaign gone after Clinton so hard lately? Halperin’s reason number 9: “Because they can: the media continues to highlight the Clinton campaign’s negative tactics in a disapproving way, but only rarely points out the intensified negative tone and rhetoric Obama’s campaign has been using – even though it conflicts with the candidate’s professed desire for a new kind of politics.”
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p>In fairness to Clinton, Halperin is right: the Obama campaign has indeed gotten away with murder. They’ve been having it every which way from Sunday: attacking Clinton with impunity while claiming some sort of political high ground, and playing the put upon victim when attacked or criticized. It’s a great strategy – if you can get away with it, and Obama seems to be pulling it off.”
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p>Sad state of affairs …at least there are some good local races this year.
twas he who used a sexist slang for female genitalia to describe Obama in a radio interview, then later blamed it on John Edwards. Nice. Sexist and a coward.
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p>Truth is, the candidate who has “gotten away with murder” is John McCain. And the enablers are people like Mark Halperin who wax on about the need for fairness between Democrats but give McBS a big pass. Both Democrats have been scrutinized more harshly and more unfairly than John Saint McBush, patron of BBQ and Washington Lobbyists and McReporters like Halperin.