Apparently, while I was gone, Hillary Clinton has stumbled upon a new strategy with which to win an election she's already lost: just plain making shit up. Observe:
She didn't misremember the visit; she just completely fabricated a story of how it happened and repeated that fabrication in public. And some parts of the lie don't even make any sense. "There was a saying around the White House that if a place is too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn't go, so send the first lady." Really? I highly doubt that in 1996 Tony Lake, Warren Christopher, and Bill were chilling in the Oval Office and saying, "hmmm, Bosnia is one of our most important foreign policy problems, so important that we've hosted a major peace conference devoted to it in Ohio, but it's too small, poor, and dangerous for the president to go to, so let's send someone with no role in the policymaking apparatus". Because that makes no sense. When the Clintons can't even think of coherent lies anymore, they really have to throw in the towel.
She didn't misremember the visit; she just completely fabricated a story of how it happened and repeated that fabrication in public. And some parts of the lie don't even make any sense. "There was a saying around the White House that if a place is too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn't go, so send the first lady." Really? I highly doubt that in 1996 Tony Lake, Warren Christopher, and Bill were chilling in the Oval Office and saying, "hmmm, Bosnia is one of our most important foreign policy problems, so important that we've hosted a major peace conference devoted to it in Ohio, but it's too small, poor, and dangerous for the president to go to, so let's send someone with no role in the policymaking apparatus". Because that makes no sense. When the Clintons can't even think of coherent lies anymore, they really have to throw in the towel.
Not to mention that there are very few people out there would think, "Hmm, since I'm unwilling to risk my life in this dangerous warzone, I think I'll just sacrifice my wife and only daughter instead."
Posted by: Ned | March 23, 2008 at 04:26 PM
Exactly; if Hillary and Chelsea had been killed by sniper fire, it would have been much more symbolically damaging than if, say, Warren Christopher and Dick Holbrooke had been. If danger's the concern, the latter duo would have made much more sense.
Posted by: Dylan Matthews | March 23, 2008 at 04:54 PM