Morning Coffee (119)

I apologize for Brewing so little of late. There simply hasn’t been much time for the simple pleasures in life, like enjoying Coffee with friends. And being under no less of a time crunch today, let’s just dive in, shall we?

Being Hillary:

It is my assessment that Hillary Clinton now stands no chance of securing the Democratic nomination for President. Prior to the revelation this week that her recollection of her trip to Bosnia in 1996 was somewhat inaccurate, I thought that her chances of getting the nomination were pretty slim, but now there is simply no chance.

For those who aren’t aware, during a 17 March speech, Clinton said of her trip to Bosnia: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." This has been discredited by a number of sources, including the comedian Sinbad who, along with Sheryl Crow was with the then First Lady and Chelsea. The Senator’s version of events was dismembered in a way you rarely see with such a “polished” figure.

Yesterday Clinton was forced to admit she was in err, however, she claims she merely “misspoke.” She told the Philadelphia Daily News editorial board, “I went to 80 countries, you know. I gave contemporaneous accounts, I wrote about a lot of this in my book. You know, I think that, a minor blip, you know, if I said something that, you know, I say a lot of things - millions of words a day - so if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement." Just a misstatement. No biggie. Sorry ‘bout that.

It may sound odd to those who are familiar with my impressive cynicism, but I don’t necessarily think that Clinton purposefully mischaracterized those events. It’s well possible that she is convinced that things happened that way, or some way similar. It was probably the first time she’d ever been in a remotely dangerous situation, and surely the first time she’d ever landed in a military aircraft in an area that could be hostile. I think the part of her account where she was asked to go into the armored portion of the cockpit was verified. If they asked her to do that, it’s reasonable to believe that it highly influenced her subconscious, and the hectic moving around she did, accompanied with the time zone difference and jet lag might have reinforced the hurried, panicky flurry of activity she witnessed on the military base that’s associated with any high-level visit. She might have gotten the wrong impression, and jumped to conclusions.

I’m not in any way apologizing for her behavior, or giving her a pass, because she could have been less careless. But I don’t think this is any worse, fundamentally, than Obama’s claim of total ignorance at Pastor Wright’s bigotry. Actually, while I find Clinton’s issue more insulting than Obama’s on a personal level (me having been in a combat-ish zone), I find it less of a disqualifier. Obama was, in my mind, completely disingenuous about a relationship spanning years with a man who he considers to be an uncle. Obama had to have known, somehow, that some of Wright’s sermons were as they were. I simply do not accept the excuse that he never heard Wright say anything. It’s absurd. He is lying. I don’t believe in guilt by association, necessarily, but the man lied. Clinton lied too, but her lies could be attributed to the typical problem with eye-witnesses: she remembered wrong because she was in a state of heightened stress. This doesn’t excuse it, but it doesn’t completely freak me out.

It is also possible that she misrepresented the truth for political gain, of course. But it seems like an obscenely rookie mistake by a campaign that is supposed to be so polished. This is why I am hesitant to believe that it was her attempting to gain more credibility in the national security realm (as if being shot by snipers is to gain instant credibility).

Having said that, the Obama campaign will not let it go, I’m sure. It will be an issue. And I think it simply adds to the animosity felt towards Clinton by the public, and rightly so.

I remember Clinton’s “sniper fire” story surfacing a while ago, but oddly, I haven’t seen any mention it’s surfacing prior to 17 March. Actually, Obama’s campaign was so kind to find several prior Clinton utterances of the event, as told in this article.

Pathetically, that’s all I have time for, and it was little more than rambling. It’s too bad, since there’s so much to talk about, like this, and this.

Word of the Day: Misnomer (noun): 1. The misnaming of a person in a legal instrument, as a complaint or indictment. 2. Any misnaming of a person or thing; also, a wrong or inapplicable name or designation. For example, it is a misnomer to call a politician a schmuck, when he’s actually a putz.

On This Day in History: Iwo Jima is declared secure by US forces, “ending” over a month of combat operations (1945). Despite this declaration, three thousand Japanese soldiers remained alive in the island’s maze of caves. Some committed suicide, others eventually surrendered. Two men, Yamakage Kufuku and Matsudo Linsoki, held out for six years, surrendering only in 1951. That is amazing. Ground is broken for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982). Today is also the alleged birthday of Zoroaster, who could have lived as far back as the 6^th century BCE.

“I need a new job.” – Anonymous.