Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs

Ellen Ladowsky: Hillary Clinton's Bosnia story has been overshadowed by the lunatic performances of Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But whether Wright is a nut-job is not remotely the same order of question as whether snipers were shooting at Hillary Clinton. Everyone senses this, even if they can't articulate it. It is truly unsettling to watch someone lie so effortlessly and with such seeming sincerity.

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The Hillary camp must have realized the story wasn't completely dead, because Bill Clinton brought it up again. In a bizarrely misguided attempt to minimize its impact he revived the story in a version of his own : "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... 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 11:00 at night too".

Of course, it wasn't one time. It wasn't late at night. She wasn't exhausted because she said it three different times. And she didn't apologize immediately (or even close to immediately). It also begged the question: If Hillary could be gaga at 11:00 pm, what would she be like when the phone rings at 3:00 am?

When President Clinton's story backfired, Hillary's campaign tried to paint Bill as the storyteller and his wife as the authority. At a rally in Indiana, Bill said: "Hillary called me and said, 'You don't remember this. You weren't there, let me handle it'''. Now let me get this straight: Hillary was there, so Hillary ought to know, except it turned out that Hillary didn't know, so Bill makes up a story to explain the story that Hillary made up even though she was there.

There are two possibilities: Hillary may be a pathological liar. Or, more persuasive to me, Hillary believed what she was saying and her description of her Bosnia trip was a true representation of her psychic reality and not external reality. In her internal world, Hillary may feel as though she's always being shot at by sniper fire and that she's heroically managed to stay alive.

This theory makes sense of Hillary's recklessness. It didn't feel reckless to Hillary to repeat this lie over and over again, and she paid no heed to those who contradicted her, because in her mind, she was telling the truth. Only when confronted with undeniable evidence of external reality -- actual footage from her Bosnia trip - did she admit (possibly to herself as well as the public) that her version of events was not true.

It also explains Hillary's reaction when exposed. She was angry because she was forced to abandon her psychic reality for external reality. For her, this was tantamount to giving up the truth in exchange for mere facts. When she said "It proves I'm human which you know for some people is a revelation", she may well have been reminding herself.


While most of her explanations have made no sense, when Hillary told Leno that she'd had "a lapse", she was right on. She'd had an actual lapse in mental functioning. Fantasy took over from reality. Reporters and pundits were already starting to question whether Hillary believed her own story. Hitchens wondered whether "she was subject to an illusory past". Melinda Henneberger, writing in Slate, said, she could only conclude that Hillary must have believed the lie because she could not imagine any other reason why "any presidential candidate would knowingly cook up such a doozy of a drama about dodging a sniper's bullets in Bosnia -- given that she was accompanied on this trip by a planeload of reporters". Henneberger concluded that this was more disturbing than if she had lied and "ought to be a deal breaker".

This may explain why Hillary's explanation in the Pennsylvania debate was so bizarre: "I can tell you that I may be a lot of things but I'm not dumb." She wanted to shift her problem into the domain of IQ rather than raising a question about her psychic functioning. If people began to question her grasp of reality, she'd be history.

The sensed of a shared reality is fundamental to the functioning of the world. In the same way that delusions and hallucinations are so disturbing, or that contradicting a child's perceptions is so traumatic, so Hillary's story constituted a jarring attack on our sense of common reality.

In the course of Hillary's campaign, a number of features have repeatedly emerged that are also elements of her Bosnia tale. 1) Hillary is both hero and victim; 2) facts are of no consequence; 3) And there are no witnesses or observers to the facts. This last point is always startling. For example, Hillary's explanation of her vote on the war made Nora Ephron wonder if Hillary thought we "weren't alive at the time."

On the tarmac in Bosnia, Hillary is the victim for being shot at and the hero for braving a war zone. And she's apparently having a negative hallucination that nobody else was there. The irony, of course, is that when the Bosnia story was discovered, it reinforced Hillary's psychic reality: Once again she felt she was being sniped at (this time by journalists). And that she had to heroically fight on and escape this near-death experience. Which it now seems she has.

For those who think Hillary won't go all the way to the convention in Denver, think again. Hillary sees herself as the victim in this primary campaign -- blaming the press, or the Democratic rules of proportional representation, or the caucus system, or whatever else she comes up with between now and August. She considers herself a heroic fighter for the good of the country; she ignores all the merely factual evidence that she is losing by every measure; and she imagines that nobody is there to notice.

Is Hillary a liar, or a confabulator, or subject to delusions and/or hallucinations.

Whatever the situation, she'd be a better leader for the country than Obama.

She's the lesser of two evils.

She's the lesser of two evils. Posted by Johnson


Only if she was running against the Devil himself would that be an accurate statement.

Hillary will always see herself as the Victim.

That is the tragedy of her position.

That would be the tragedy beyond tragedy of her Presidency.

She needs help, and naturally her husband cannot give it to her. He is part of the victimhood and they are bound by it.

National tragedy? Only if they don't go away.

Only if she was running against the Devil himself would that be an accurate statement.

Posted by OzarkAggie


Not when there is more than one Devil.

She lied because it's her nature to lie.

1. She's a lawyer

2. She's a politician

3. She's a Clinton

4. She's an elitist snob even worse that Osama

Why Did Clinton Lie About Sniper Fire?


Well, according to Hillary she underwent the equivalent with
Republican sniper fire.

She lied for the same reason I lied about some shenagians I didn't do back in freshman year out @ U of Montana.

she was trying to impress people because she herself is basicly an insecure person.

Now she's trying to impress people by telling us she "lies" sometimes for those reasons.

that's okay with me.

Most Presidental candidates (& Presidents) do that for a living:>)

from the article -

Appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, she joked: "I was so worried I wasn't going to make it [here]. I was pinned down by sniper fire at a Burbank airport."

Wow! Not even a 10 minute drive from my house to the Burbank Airport.
I better invest in a flak jacket and up armor my car before I drive past there again.


You mean Hillary actually lied?

I think she did it just to piss johnson off.

Sentaor Clinton as protayed in that article reminds me of the girls in "Heavenly Creatures".

super ff for califchris!

4. She's an elitist snob even worse that Osama

Vernon, where is Osama, by the way?

Why did Hilliary stay with Bill after his sleazy affairs with Gennifer Glowers,Monica Lewinsky and so many more? Is this her shining "role model" example for American women?
Why did Hilliary have no qualms in profiting,with hubby Bill off the Arkansas Prisoner's Poison Blood Scandal? It couldn't possibly be because Hilliary is as corrupt and as much of a cheat and a liar as Bill is - could it???

Most normal people such as republicans and conservatives already knew that Bill and Hillary were pathological liars. That's one of the reasons that we hate them. Even Obama is better than Hillary. Most normal people also know intuitively that loberalism is a brain disorder. That explains why liberals are surprised when the Clintons lie. Then they quickly forget because the brain disease takes over.

I saw thr movie The Night of The Living Dead again recently. Those Zombies were just like liberals. But they were relentless and that is why they are so difficult to stop, just like liberals are so difficult to stop.

One lie in the LONG list of many.

One can assume this will sadly not be her last.

Posters on this thread are such pious people. Ms Hillary is trying to find a place in a hierarchy. We lose sight of the fact that we are biological beings with goals dictated by biology. We set up standards, and pretend that they are a reality instead of recognizing them as constructs. Here when Ms Hillary comes out biting and scratching, and trying to improve her position, we pull "lying" out of the bag as if it were a bad thing or unexpected, and pillory Hillary with it.

The problem is not that Hillary lied, but that she showed such bad judgment in telling an unbelieveable story. Even relatively minor VIPs, disposable and readily replaceable Congressmen, were never put anywhere that there was a perception that hostile forces could be lurking. The idea that the wife and daughter of POTUS had been put is a position of risk is so far-fetched given the situation that is, that her claim could readily be perceived as a untruth on its face as it so departed from the reality of the world

Her poor judgement in telling the particular lie is what should be and is at issue, and not the fact that she was engaging in routine political behavior. Is she totally detached from reality not to have realized that this situation would out? Or is it that she so routinely engages in such behavior, that her expectation is that all of her misstatements will go undetected.

Is it just "her way?" It reminds me of the story of a mafioso arrested at an airport for boosting a $20 tie, who when arrested was found to have several thousand dollars in cash on his person. It was just "his way." Lying is normal behavior for Ms Hillary. But the lack of judgment is what is at issue and compromises her. Obama also is a lying sack of shit doing his soft shoe dance to distance himself from Rev. Wright as a matter of political expediency. He has presented himself throughout as something he is not, and has ruthlessly attacked anyone, even his grandmother, and even his mentor, who presents an obstacle to his attaining his goals. He is manipulative and ruthless. That's okay. What is of concern is what his beliefs are and the actions that such beliefs will generate.

Better candidates for President were chosen when the decisions were made in smoke filled rooms by elite politicians, who controlled the party apparatus. The pols at least knew the candidates and were not deceived by the whitewashed picture created by media puff pieces. What absymal choices we have this turn. The current system of selection of candidates unduly empowers the media.

Just a note. In the rooms filled with cigar smoke, there was also whiskey but no women. Was it the cigar smoke, the whiskey, or the absence of distaff concerns, or some combination of these factors that resulted in selection of better presidential candidates.

Is that diarrhea I smell?

Vernon, where is Osama, by the way?

Posted by sitdown at 2008-05-03 06:07 PM | Reply

in PA running for Prez?

Better candidates for President were chosen when the decisions were made in smoke filled rooms by elite politicians, who controlled the party apparatus. The pols at least knew the candidates and were not deceived by the whitewashed picture created by media puff pieces. What absymal choices we have this turn. The current system of selection of candidates unduly empowers the media.


Just a note. In the rooms filled with cigar smoke, there was also whiskey but no women. Was it the cigar smoke, the whiskey, or the absence of distaff concerns, or some combination of these factors that resulted in selection of better presidential candidates.


Johnson

oh please...name one? That was before the internet, too:>)

"Only if she was running against the Devil himself would that be an accurate statement."

Aggie: She is.

you are blaspheming Minneapolis ~ MTwhore!

Because She lacked the street creds necessary for running for office therefore She (Oh God I can't think of the term that pertains to in esense padding ones resume other than the natural term of lying) Just like that Robert Irvine Chef did on the Food Network.

Larry Mohr

"Is that diarrhea I smell?

Posted by Scrumplet"

Isn't it always?

Because she can.

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