HRC's Bosnia Blunder
O.k., how big a deal is it that HRC claimed to be dodging sniper fire and so forth, when she was really sauntering around chatting with an eight-year-old girl and all that?
I'm inclined to say that it's nothing more than a faulty memory... But I do have to say that the Clinton camp is squealing a little too loudly about being busted for it. It's Clinton who has made a big deal about "the commander-in-chief threshold," and her foreign policy experience...though she can't seem to really come up with any specifics. Then she starts with the story about dodging sniper fire in what seemed like an attempt to show that she'd been in the thick of things...and it turns out it was BS. As JQ put it, people are making a big deal out of it now that it's turned out to be false largely because HRC was making rather a big deal out of it when she was saying that it was true.
The gotcha paradigm is a crappy one, though, and there's no doubt about that. It's no way to run an election. But apparently that's what we're stuck with. And given that, it's pretty hard to resist this particular gotcha. The crowing about foreign policy cred, the exciting story about dodging gunfire, then the actual video tape showing that it couldn't be farther from the truth... As gotchas go, this one was pretty high-grade. This is the kind of BS that only happens when good will has largely evaporated. But, as for the gotcha atmosphere in general, this is not the way, for example, that we treat our friends--seizing on every mistake, attributing each one to nefarious motives, etc. Just a little good will in these matters would go a long way.
But, of course, that's an Obama-like point...the kind that's received so much ridicule from, e.g., those in the Clinton camp...(..."kumbaya" and all that...)...who are now asking us to be, well, more Obama-like...
Of course, one might respond that HRC herself is largely responsible for this nasty atmosphere, and that would be true. So to some extent she's just reaping what she has sown. Still, it's a stupid way to conduct our politics.
O.k., how big a deal is it that HRC claimed to be dodging sniper fire and so forth, when she was really sauntering around chatting with an eight-year-old girl and all that?
I'm inclined to say that it's nothing more than a faulty memory... But I do have to say that the Clinton camp is squealing a little too loudly about being busted for it. It's Clinton who has made a big deal about "the commander-in-chief threshold," and her foreign policy experience...though she can't seem to really come up with any specifics. Then she starts with the story about dodging sniper fire in what seemed like an attempt to show that she'd been in the thick of things...and it turns out it was BS. As JQ put it, people are making a big deal out of it now that it's turned out to be false largely because HRC was making rather a big deal out of it when she was saying that it was true.
The gotcha paradigm is a crappy one, though, and there's no doubt about that. It's no way to run an election. But apparently that's what we're stuck with. And given that, it's pretty hard to resist this particular gotcha. The crowing about foreign policy cred, the exciting story about dodging gunfire, then the actual video tape showing that it couldn't be farther from the truth... As gotchas go, this one was pretty high-grade. This is the kind of BS that only happens when good will has largely evaporated. But, as for the gotcha atmosphere in general, this is not the way, for example, that we treat our friends--seizing on every mistake, attributing each one to nefarious motives, etc. Just a little good will in these matters would go a long way.
But, of course, that's an Obama-like point...the kind that's received so much ridicule from, e.g., those in the Clinton camp...(..."kumbaya" and all that...)...who are now asking us to be, well, more Obama-like...
Of course, one might respond that HRC herself is largely responsible for this nasty atmosphere, and that would be true. So to some extent she's just reaping what she has sown. Still, it's a stupid way to conduct our politics.
posted by Winston Smith at
9:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home