Cross posted from Blue Hampshire
This is not about McCain, my friends.
Having just read the post below, I felt like I needed to come clean with you all and make some amends.
On the trail in Indiana, Mike Memoli transcribes Bill Clinton telling his version of Tuzla:
And, you know. I got tickled the other day. A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me. But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y’all see all that? Oh, they blew it up.
Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and General Wesley Clark — who was there making peace where we’d lost three peacekeepers who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way — both defended her because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flak jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony.
Now I say that because, what really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops. And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you woulda thought, you know, that she’d robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them when they’re 60 they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11 at night, too.
For those who forgot about the Tuzla rabbit hole, the speech where she got in trouble for “misspeaking” about arriving under sniper fire was in the morning, she told the story more than once, she didn’t acknowledge that she misspoke until more than a week after giving the speech (and long after the comedian Sinbad had disputed her recollections of the Bosnia trip), … and Pat Nixon visited Saigon in 1969 .
And here’s the explanation that two Clinton aides who accompanied the First Lady gave last week in the New York Times.
Via Ben Smith
I don’t know where to start really. We have been at odds for so many years, throughout my entire “political adulthood” and beyond.
Confining myself to the matter of the Clintons, of which I was a rabid believer, I should admit; if the Kool Aid cliche was ever applicable, I am GUILTY.
So, without going to far with the whole “I’m OK, you’re OK”, “water under the bridge” mush; please let me simply offer my apology for not listening very well when you ranted about Bill.
I am not usually such a slow learner. My sense of patriotism blinds me sometimes.
Even if Bill and Hillary Clinton are the most deeply flawed individuals, who will exaggerate and even outright lie about things, like what conditions were on a trip to Yugoslavia or whether one of them had sexual relations outside marriage, what Republican has run for office & spent their political capital on the goal of universal health coverage for every American? What Republican has run for office pushing for the minimum wage to be increased so the poorest people who can find employment have a chance to get ahead?
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p>The best propaganda does not tell you what to think, it tells you what to think about.
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p>Bob Dole may have been the noblest human being in America, but his career was built on preserving inequality in America, not to mention disparaging and reducing women’s rights to make decisions about their own bodies (if that isn’t private property, what is?).
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p>You didn’t drink any Kool Aid* when you supported Democrats who pushed for a fairer more equitable America.
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p>*now there’s a children’s drink whose marketing & branding has been shot to bits among adults.
once the reader understands that you’re a prolific, anti-Clinton writer. This is, however, brand new territory for even you, John, and I think it’s wonderful that you’ve found yourself to be “sympatico” with a party that has made Clinton-bashing an occupation for the last twenty years. Really, when your candidate was running on hope and unity – I didn’t think that meant sucking up to Republicans and taking over their right wing talking points. Who knew? Really – So what’s next – you’re voting McCain if Obama doesn’t get the nomination?
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p>http://vps28478.inmotionhosting.com/~bluema24/u…