Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Another Reason to Say No...

This is awesome. Hillary goes on Today for a one-on-one chat with Meredith Vieira. Probably expecting a last-minute pre-caucus fluff interview, Hillary starts trotting out some of the same old shit that she was personally involved and integral in everything from brokering peace in Northern Ireland to creating the budget surplus while splitting the atom, all as First Lady...

Hillary: "I was the first high-profile American to go into Bosnia after the Dayton Peace Accords..."

Really? I had no idea...And what other high-powered world leaders accompanied her on this momentous diplomatic mission?

This guy.


No, seriously. Fucking Sinbad.

Watch the video, it's not often that Hillary gets caught by surprise...



UPDATE: As Smitty points out in the comments, this isn't really a classic "gotcha" moment or gaffe situation, but it IS taking one of Hillary's patented lines/claims and dismantling it. Right in front of her. And she is left with not much to say...

Vieira: "But, you went to Bosnia with Sinbad. A performer..."

HRC [interrupts]: "That's right. That's right."

Vieira [continues]: "...that, that wasn't really establishing any kind of foreign policy."

HRC [dismissively]: "Oh, you know, again...I put my experience up against anybody."


Against anybody. Even Sinbad.

In a sense this is kind of a Romney/MLK moment...Hillary is portraying (embellishing?) her years in the White House as First Lady as something more akin to Vice President, and we only have her word to go on—she has sealed most of the records, etc so there's no way to check. So she can sit there inserting what might have been a simple handshaking/USO tour into a context of phrases like "formal national security council meeting," "intimately involved," "Dayton Peace Accords," "the way decisions were made" and inflate it up into something it might not have been.

And I don't really go for that.

[h/t TPM]

9 comments:

Noah said...

A couple of things:

1) that picture of Sinbad? I see it has an autograph on it. That isn't...by chance...yours, is it? That you scanned? Sinbad?

2) As much as I am wildly unimpressed with the self-proclaimed annointed heir to the throne, I am not sure that this is quite the "gotcha moment" I was looking for to indicate either the death throes of her Iowa campaign or the beginning of the end of her media-hyped limp to the top. It certainly didn't seem to phase her much. Sure, it could be that she is so impressed with herself that Sinbad doesn't qualify as a "high profile American."

But I guess I agree with her. Sinbad isn't exactly a High Profile American.

Deb said...

How insulting. I bet Sinbad's mom thinks he's an HPA.

I gave you a little link love in my blog today, Mr. F. My apologies.

Mr Furious said...

As if I'd let anybody deface my Sinbad glossy—even the man himself!

Angie McCullagh said...

Sinbad is crucial. Don't forget it.

Angie
www.AllAdither.com

Mike said...

That's hilarious.

Noah said...

Now that you point out the dismantling...it makes more sense. It's not about the gotcha, it's more about calling bullshit on her embellishment, thus proving that her "proven record" isn't quite what she sells it to be.

And in that case, indeed, yet one more reason to say no. We'll see in a couple hours, I guess.

Rickey said...

Wake up people, this is called modern diplomacy. How do you think we brokered peace with the Germans in 1939? It was the Neville Chamberlain/Carrot Top Peace envoy that was able to negotiate peace with Hitler.

Mrs Furious said...

Against anybody. Even Sinbad.

lol

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, Mr. Furious.

Based on how you phrase it, you can spin a crap on the toilet as the moment gravity was fully explained to you.

It's all *how* you say it.

Viva la Sinbad!