Friday, April 4, 2008

Incoming!!

I don't want to pick on Hillary Clinton, really I don't. I've previously discussed why I'm, not fully enthusiastically, behind Barack Obama in this election. I don't ignore his flaws, I wish he had more experience, and I don't like the details of some of his programs, but I do think he offers the best hope, out of the three candidates, for moving this country ahead. He won't deal fully with all of the issues, no product of our current political mechanism will, but he may be able to bring a sense of unity to the nation that will allow us to deal with our future challenges.

That said, I caught Hillary's appearance on the Tonight Show last night, and she opened with a joke.
It is so great to be here, I was so worried I wasn't going to make it. I was pinned down by sniper fire.
I understand the theory that you defuse an uncomfortable situation with humor, and that, especially in campaigns, you want to control a bad moment by grabbing it.

But, even if you're not quite as apoplectic as Christopher Hitchens about Hillary's "misspeaking" about her trip to Bosnia, I don't see how you can be anything less than uncomfortable about her joke. How would this be any different from Bill Clinton coming on to Jay's show and saying, "I was worried I wasn't going to make it, I was having sex with that woman"?

We shouldn't confuse self-deprecation with honesty; sure, Hillary can laugh about it, but that doesn't change the fact of the lie. There was no sniper fire, just a little girl at the airport reciting a poem.

Words are the currency of the politician, especially one running for office, as they can not implement anything in their travels about the country. And just as I wouldn't find it funny to hear a surgeon joke about a botched bypass operation, neither do I find it humorous when a politician, particularly one appealing to us on the basis of her experience, so completely misrepresents something in an attempt to gain credibility, then yuks it up with Jay.

Hillary, apologize for being untruthful, how about that? Then we'll get back to an important campaign, and the voters can decide how much to discount your future truthfulness and claims of experience.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If Hillary is not a monster, she is something close to it, something shameless.

She lied big time about the "sniper fire" and was caught in no time. Her credibility is hurt, to the extent that more independents moved away from her. She should be really really embarrassed and regretful, and wish she had never said anything.

Instead, she "joked" about it.

Hillary, what's so funny about your lie? Do you have any shame?

No, Hillary, you are not a human being.

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