Hillary's Psychic Reality

During the Democratic debate in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton gave the following gloss on her Bosnia fairytale: "I can tell you that I may be a lot of things but I'm not dumb... On a couple of occasions in the last weeks, I just said some things that weren't in keeping with what I knew to be the case ...on a few occasions I was not as accurate as I have been in the past... So I will either try to get more sleep...or have somebody who is there as a reminder to me. "

Huh?

Ordinarily, saying things that aren't in keeping with what one knows to be the case is called "lying". And what's dumb got to do with it? No one ever accused Hillary of being dumb. And dumb couldn't explain her Bosnia remarks anyhow.

Yet bizarrely enough, the press didn't seem to notice or comment on the utter absurdity of her remarks. Either they were accepted as some kind of apology or they were relegated to the ever-expanding swamp of campaign "gaffes" and "silliness."

In any case, the Bosnia story has now been overshadowed -- most recently by the lunatic performances of Reverend Wright. But whether or not Reverend 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. To recap: Hillary, sporting a big festive shamrock scarf, looked straight at the audience and in a remarkably relaxed way recalled an incident where she had landed in Bosnia under sniper fire. She described a situation so dangerous that the greeting ceremony at the airport had to be canceled and claimed that she'd run to her vehicle with her head down in order to make a quick getaway. She even had an accompanying hand gesture conveying her dramatic dash for dear life.

There were no obvious tells that Hillary was bluffing. She chuckled a little as she described her narrow escape -- a curious affect given the gravity of the situation, but people do react in different ways to trauma. Overall, it was a pretty smooth performance. If there were any pangs of conscience they were not visible.

As political lies go, it was an outlier. Hillary didn't impulsively lie because she was caught off-guard. She didn't lie because the truth would be damaging to her political career or painful to her family. She didn't lie to win over a political base. She didn't lie to distance herself from an event that suggested some improper conduct or an unsavory person that could tarnish her reputation. She didn't lie because she was promoting behavior in the public sphere that she was not abiding by in her personal life. She didn't lie to cover up a mistake that had been made.

Hillary's lie was different. She lied with no need to do so. And she made the story up out of whole cloth. It wasn't as if one bullet was fired at her and she exaggerated the incident. There was no sniper fire - never, ever. It was the sort of lie a child might tell playing make-believe. In an article in Huffington Post, Nora Ephron confessed that she'd "lost hours trying to figure out why" Hillary told such "a big lie".

But let's say she was motivated by political gain. Some have suggested the story was meant to embellish her foreign policy experience. But dodging sniper fire doesn't really speak to foreign policy expertise; it speaks more to issues of character like bravery and patriotism. Maybe it was supposed to suggest that Hillary could be a better match for John McCain because she too had put herself in harms' way for her country.

Of course, as a political calculation, this would have been crazy. Considering the probability of getting caught, the risks of telling this lie far outweighed any conceivable political gain. As New York Times columnist Frank Rich pointed out her story had "been publicly debunked by journalists and eyewitnesses" for months. "Why would so smart a candidate play political Russian roulette with virtually all the bullet chambers loaded?"

Wouldn't it have entered her mind that if she was found out it would be seen as an insult to anyone who'd seen real action? One GOP ad with grainy footage of McCain limping home from Vietnam contrasted with Hillary's cheerful tale of coming under sniper fire in Bosnia, and the race would be over.

Hillary may have gambled that her audience wanted to believe her. Or she may have figured the story was so tall that the public would never dream she'd made it up. Whatever her thought process, Hillary appeared unfazed by the possibility of detection. Guilt, fear of humiliation, or any other negative repercussions did not appear to inhibit her. Apparently, there was no little voice in her head, helping her to distinguish between right and wrong. Christopher Hitchens concluded that Hillary may be "someone who lies without conscience or reflection".

When Hillary's lie was exposed, she attempted to diminish it. She said she "misspoke" because of sleep deprivation. Then she said she "misspoke" because, after all, she spouts "millions of words a day". But Hillary couldn't have "misspoke" She'd repeated the story on several occasions. Perhaps she was saying that she continually "misspoke". But if she continually "misspoke", surely Chelsea, who had accompanied her to Bosnia, would have pointed this out. (Psst, Mom, nobody was shooting at us).

Maybe there was nothing Hillary could say, but a little remorse would have been nice. Instead she seemed irritated: "So I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I'm human which you know for some people is a revelation". In other words, we were to blame for holding her to too high a standard of truth.

When it became apparent that people weren't willing to dismiss Hillary's Bosnia "misstatement" so quickly, she attempted to make light of it. 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." She referred to the Bosnia flap as "a mismatch of words and actions", and since, after all, she'd got it right in her book, she'd "obviously had a lapse".

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.

Comments

[justobserve]

It seems Hillary has a multiple personality problem! She is the person who can be "home" everywhere she goes to be "I am one of you" type of gal.

[Billie]

She will "be" whoever you need her to be (if she needs YOUR VOTE). That's the dysfunction. That's the obsequious, unheroic pandering, the strategy. An elitist pretending that she does shots in a bar to get the rurals. Showing up at a gas station trailing gas guzzling SUVs while touting "green jobs" and not even knowing how to pump or pour coffee. This is an elitist. Touting a stupid gas tax vacation to fool the vulnerable and uniformed. Voting for Iraq to make people think she's tough (how many dead now?) At this pint, she is delegrate-desperate, so she goes to great lengths to brainwash those she thinks are too stupid to read or compute her machinations (blue collars or "chumps"). So instead of caring about blue collars, she is manipulating them. And the irony is, she and her husband already screwed them with NAFTA, among other things. But never mind. She figures they aren't educated enough to see through her. Her cerebral narcissism (and her husband's cerebral/somatic narcissism) are so complimentary, I think, it has been so effectively insidiously disarming (aided by a toothless media) that it is about time America wised up. It is interesting to me that the groups the Clinton has betrayed are the ones voting for her. Stockholm Syndrome? Blind loyalty? Fear of change? Whatever. It's pretty clear she is hoping for blindness and naivite. And above all, FEAR

[BlueAsh]

What an excellent essay! Reading it feels cathartic!

Your unflinching intellectual honesty and sharp insight make this woman proud! You go girl!

[nynick]

BTW--has anyone heard an explanation for how Obama's handwritten notes ended up on questionaire about gun control that he said he never saw, was filled out by a low level staffer and that misrepresented his views?

[AuntSally]

This particular article was about Hillary. But thanks for sharing...

[lastams]

Isn’t it time that we take Hillary at her word when she calls to get all the Senators “on the record” so we’ll know is truly on OUR side?
So let’s see … On the expansion of Nafta into Peru and the continuation of the fast tracked trade policy that has helped destroy the economy: Senator Hillary Clinton not voting.
Or how about in December when Congress passed a 600 billion dollar omnibus spending bill:
Senator Hillary Clinton; not voting.
Or the 600 billion dollar defense appropriation bill in January and it’s landmark one thousand plus earmarks?
Hillary Clinton, once again, not voting.
Now this week we have the obscene epitome of pork barrel politics known as the Farm Bill, where we will once again be spending billions of dollars to pay wealthy landowners to NOT GROW FOOD…
Hillary Clinton? Not to be heard.
A guest on Olberman last night attributed whatever support there may be for the Clinton /McCain gas tax fraud to “limited knowledge voters”.
Limited knowledge indeed.
If Clinton pulls out this nomination it will be though keeping her supporters pumped on promises and short on facts.
You know, she starts to sound more like a Republican everyday.

[elevando]

Ok, the title, "Hillary's psychic reality" - there is no way you could possibly know that, but I understand your frustration, and you want to strike back. You can see that Obama is being tarnished by the Rev Wright controversy because the typical conservative democrat is filling in the private “psychic reality” of Obama with the anger and indignation toward America that is usually reserved for Rev Wright's sermons. It is sad this is happening, but you can understand why it is happening. Obama is new to the national stage and voters don't know much about him. What we don't need now is Obama supporters acting like hypocrites and throwing the "kitchen sink" at Hillary when they once claimed to be teaching America a new kind of politics, a politics of change.

A change is happening in this election. Let it happen. Obama will be the VP and will eventually be the president in 8 years. We have a chance at a democratic dynasty, don't ruin it.

[YoFraz]

Elevando,

I mean no disrespect, but the idea that one, Clinton is going to win the nomination (given the delegate situation), and that two, Obama would then accept the VP slot (given his treatment by her campaign) is equally dismissive of reality.

[lorisc]

"Throwing the kitchen sink". Now where have I heard that phrase before? I remember, the Clinton campaign said that was the strategy they were using against Obama.

[thismachinekillsfascists]

Take that Hillary supporters!

Your gal is deleusional and lives in a bubble. The perfect puppet president.

Who else thinks like this? Do we really want another 4 years of an out-of-touch-with-reality wealthy imbicile?

[maggieb]

In this age of new media, your article is many weeks late...people have moved on the "Wrightgate" No one is interested in your deconstruction of Hillary Clinton but the Obamaniacs. Old news, NEXT! Maybe you can crawl back into your little hole and pen an article on how Obama lied about not knowing the essence of his Pastor's sermons. All politicians lie, and as Pastor Wright stated, Obama is a politician.

[BeerNotWar]

You need a much better explanation for Hillary's behavior than saying "old news." There are several instances in which Hillary has flat out lied during this campaign and I'm sick of it. She's killing herself for the general election with this garbage.
Do you know how easy it's going to be for the GOP to tear her down? Obama's campaign won't do it because he's looking ahead and trying not to divide the party any more than necessary.
But the rest of us can see that Hillary and the truth are only loosely acquainted with one another. I don't know if I buy the notion that she's delusional...rather I think she'll just say anything to get elected and is counting on the laziness of the media to let it slide. So far, so good, as far as that goes.

[mountainmama]

BeerNotWar: I like your line that Hillary and the truth are only loosely acquainted. I add to that and say that Hillary and language, too, are also only loosely associated. She is not a woman of words (doesn't respect their power); she is not an admirer of words (she ridicules Obama's fine ear); she is not a woman OF her word (they are just trashy things like styrofoam coffee cups, and disosable).

Since the world's people communicate through language, what will she do? She doesn't, won't, can't, use language for its best and only use, but instead only to tell lies--that she won't say are lies. Language to her is as trashy as her cofee cup will be once she's finished. "Here, you, the guy with the broom, sweep these words off the stage. I'm finished."

[Northlite]

The only reason we have moved on is Obama is too dignified to put together a tape of the several times Hillary told her Bosnia story against a background of the actual event. If the shoe were on the other foot, Hillary would be playing this in an endless loop. It is the difference between Clintonian "change" and real change, the difference between someone with good moral values and someone whose only moral value is "I must win."

I loved the Clintons and donated to Bill's and then Hillary's campaigns. But I am very disappointed by the "Republican" tactics they have chosen to use. It truly has lowered them.

I can no longer support Clintons' re-election.

[BlueAsh]

It is never too late to face reality. You know the saying, "better late than never."

You blame normal people's reality check on their support of Obama. How insulting! If Obama hadn't been in the race, and Hillary was on the way to the nomination, many normal, sensible people--people who are grounded on reality and take pride in their decency and honesty--would have stayed out of the election. You are right: there'd be fewer people "attacking" Hillary, because so many people would have been so disgusted by her that they'd tune her out.

Is that what you want?

[ProgressiveBum]

I, for one, can live with Obama's "lies". I cannot live with HRC's lies and insinuations. Her campaign resembles a sewer rat trying to chew up everything in her way regardless of the cost.. Unfortunately, she has chosen to live her political life as a fighter that resulted in virtually all of her proposals to become mired in gridlock. This is appropriate for an ambulance chasing attorney.
The presidency, however, requires a person with a vision and cleverness to accomplish it. Hillary has no vision beyond the current state of affairs, and her lies underline her perception problems in the here and now. Hillary is a very poor candidate to choose for president.

[Rose52]

Just because the news du jour is about Wright, it shouldn't diminish the severity of Mrs. Clintons' lie. And please be honest, aren't you a little bit happy that the Wright story came up again.

[Billie]

If Hillary is indeed a narcissistic personality, it is a defense mechanism developed in early childhood. So she could not be in the early stages in her 60s. And most studies say that NPD worsens with age. It would also explain why she cannot bring herself to apologize for her Iraq vote, like others have. People with NPD rarely apologize—and when they do, it is because there is something to get out of it. Never because of conscience. It's too damaging to crack the shell of the ego, which is fragile, despite appearances to the contrary. Other traits: entitlement, over idealizing people (for example, voters) and then devaluating (dumping) after they've served their purpose. This would explain, for example, why the Clintons remorsely race-baited after being supported by African-Americans all these years. Use 'em and lose 'em is the behavior. The only thing that matters to the narcissist is getting what they want. Period. Everything else (and everyone) is supply. Like a vampire needs blood. Of course, just an observation. Never met the woman and I'm not a shrink

[wakupmagy]

Herein lies the problem : (in my opinion)--
Hillary Clinton is not campaigning to win the vote of Ms. Ladowsky. I believe she has identified her core supporters and intelligent, critical thinking women are not among them.
The "Bosnia Lie" differs only slightly from the whiskey-drinking, "I feel your lower middle class pain" lie.
The only difference is that for Bosnia, there is the tape.
Since everything she says is basically false, this falsehood just tripped off her tongue with nary a thought.
If you believe she cares that your jobs were lost because of NAFTA, which she did not support, or you believe she (and John McCain) are the only ones fit to answer that 3am phone call and protect your children, then why shouldn't you believe she dodged sniper fire?
Oops! There is irrefutable evidence it's a lie? Oh, well. On to the next debate where Obama is probably not a Muslim . . . as far as she knows.

[NicoleAnonymous]

Usually intelligent critical thinking woman don't offer a professional "diagnosis" of a women they haven't met. I think Ladowsky is very talented - she should open a practice in LA for dogs who feel the Juicy Couture clothes humans make them wear are degrading and how they can cope with the anxiety of being put in women's handbags while they shop. But she needs to stay away from politics.

Although it might make you feel better to think only stupid women support Clinton, only a child would really think that. Usually when you're calling people stupid it helps not to say something stupid.

[wakupmagy]

I do not believe Ms. Ladowsky is "diagnosing" Hillary Clinton. She is offering an informed opinion about her behavior. You are, of course, free to disagree.

If you are offended by my characterization of Clinton's core supporters, it should be obvious this is a generalization. If you are a smart woman voting for her, it is my opinion you are in the minority of women voters.

But more telling, your reply is sarcastic and personal. You sound very angry and that may be much more to the point.

[BlueAsh]

Well said, indeed!

It is telling that Hillary and W. shares the similar voter demographics: poor, white, and uneducated. But George W. Bush actually has a wider youth base, doesn't he?

[whatchamean]

Obama has been polite and has not brought this up but the repubs would use it as the defining factor.
Not only is it in its own category of lying as Ellen points out, but the alternative is that she is delusional which is a whole other argument and decidedly more creepy. We are just getting ready to dump one of those narcissistic personalities that one poster talked about. McCain has the same affliction and apparently Hillary is in the early stages.

[britethere]

Bravo!
Bosnia Billary makes Nixon look classy, sane, and honest.

[BubbaC33]

It is clear you have idea of the history of the presidency or Nixon.

[BlueAsh]

Nixon definitely was only a better bowler (and probably drank more, too).

[PioneerKing]

“Apparently, there was no little voice in her head, helping her to distinguish between right and wrong.” “…Hillary may be "someone who lies without conscience or reflection".
Why should anyone vote for Hillary when she is so out of touch with reality and a consummate liar?
Bill said "There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary one time late at night when she was exhausted misstated and immediately apologized for it…"
Bill also lied, Hillary never apologized for her lies. “…May have miss-spoke…” is a far cry from admitting that one has blatantly lied, and lied, and lied ...
Clinton’s most egregious lie has been of the pregnant woman in Ohio who died.
That lie was so unnecessary, there are so many true horror stories about the lack of medical care that the uninsured have suffered, for Hillary to change the story as told to her (which was poorly recanted by the sheriff) is abominable.
Hillary added lies to embellish the story so that it was more dramatic, as though a pregnant woman delivering a baby that dies and subsequently dying after the delivery is not dramatic and tragic enough..
The entire Clinton family has a problem with reality and they are all unable to speak truthfully.
What is most disturbing is that the Clintons are better liars than Bush/Cheney. The Clintons lie “when lying serves no purpose.” The Clintons are pathological liars.

[Gma11]

Excellent assessment!! And very, very scary. We've had too much of this from the current president. Hillary's behavior of lately has reminded me of a particular Reagan address after the Tower Report was released. This is a four+ video segment. Pay attention to 3 minutes 30 seconds. This segment has never ceased to fascinate, and horrify, me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R67CH-qhXJs

[SMP]

so I ask you all....why hasnt the MEDIA made a large deal of this?... Someone please answer this.

She is a habitual lier....that folks will be a huge problem for us internationally and here at home.... "obliterate Iran"....yikes


She has been dishonest all her life...well since after law school. and now she has her family all going along..... grrrrrrrrrr just the mere thought of her in the white house with Billy is chilling...spooky and just plain wrong.

[Blake Fleetwood - Huffpost Blogger]

This article is based on ridiculous MSM lies and falsehoods.

There are numerous accounts by people who were on the plane that everyone on the plane was told that there were snipers in the area.

The pilot had Clinton huddle up in the front as they made a dangerous corkscrew landing.

The same day Hillary made a number of other helicopter flights to outlying bases to see the troops. They had gunners hanging out the plane to protect against snipers.

What really made everything so bad for HC was the video, and the little flower girl.

But clearly Hillary got confused and remembered running with her head down from the helicopters, later the same day.

The story grew more dangerous with each telling. No big deal except to Obama supporters who are desperate to exploit any weakness.

It is an awfully human mistake after many decades, and maybe the deep fright became hardwired in her brain.

Not that I don't think she lies, sometimes. But all politicians lie. That's part of the game. But she wouldn't tell a lie like this unless she believed it.

Does anybody really believe that Obama sat in that church for 20 years and didn't hear what Wright said?

I personally believe that Obama only joined the church to get his black "religious creds".

Maybe he didn't really listen. But that's the game he has to play to get elected.

Just as Hillary has to promote an 18 cent gas tax forgiveness.