Metanarratives and Hillary's Honesty Gap

Do you want to know how McCain beats Hillary in November? In short, the same way George Bush beat Al Gore (minus the Supreme Court coup). As Rolling Stone explained in 2001 :

Last year, a review conducted by two nonpartisan groups, Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Research Center, found that a stunning seventy-six percent of the Gore campaign coverage in early 2000 centered around two negative themes: that he lies and exaggerates, and that he's tarred by scandal. "We call it the metanarrative," says Tom Rosenstiel, director of Project for Excellence in Journalism. "Journalists are looking for a story line, a narrative device, that plays out over weeks and months, and there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is if they let the narrative overwhelm the facts, then it becomes a distorting lens. It can lead journalists to ignore and mischaracterize facts as they try to fit them into the story."

For those whose memories of Bush are cloudy pre-9/11 or forget how much the press despised Al Gore prior to his public resurrection as a party elder and environmental evangelist, Google the words "invented the internet" to get an idea of how the zombie lies of media narratives refuse to die. All it takes is a few quotes out of context and a few dashes of hyperbole to turn someone into a "serial fibber" with a "Pinocchio problem".

It's pretty clear that this is the same sort of tactic that would be used to defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall if she were to become the Democratic nominee. Over the past week, she's been contradicted on a number of claims that she uses to bolster her "experience" over her rival. The first being her Ohio primary-motivated insistence that she opposed NAFTA, which Jake Tapper has been debunking at length :

I have now talked to three former Clinton Administration officials whom I trust who tell me that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton opposed the idea of introducing NAFTA before health care, but expressed no reservations in public or private about the substance of NAFTA.

Yet the Clinton campaign continues to propagate this myth that she fought NAFTA tooth and nail because she opposed the substance of the bill.The campaign claims over and over that she did not support NAFTA. That may be emotionally and intellectually true -- but actions speak louder than misgivings.

For the Clinton campaign, we're not supposed to pay attention to what she did (which, according to her recently released schedules, included a handful of pro-NAFTA meetings) but what she said about NAFTA (but only privately, at least, until it was politically convenient).

The even bigger, and more embarrassing, fib is Clinton's fictional account of her dangerous flight into Tuzla, Boznia which is becoming her campaign-killing YouTube moment. (via nitpicker)

Clinton's foreign policy credentials have also been questioned recently in regards to her role (or lack therof) in the Northern Ireland peace process :

Mrs Clinton's version of events has been challenged by Peter King, an Ulster Unionist Party negotiator at the Good Friday talks in 1998, who said: "Hillary Clinton was totally invisible at the actual negotiations.

"As far as I am concerned, Mrs Clinton was as relevant to peace in Northern Ireland as Tony Blair's wife or the ex-wife of Bertie Ahern [the Irish prime minister]."

Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party in 1998, told The Daily Telegraph last week that Mrs Clinton's claims were a "wee bit silly".

This month, Terry McAuliffe, Mrs Clinton's campaign chairman, told CNN: "We would not have peace today had it not for Hillary's hard work in Northern Ireland."

Both Unionist and Nationalist negotiators told this newspaper that while Mrs Clinton's work with women's groups was positive her overall role was peripheral and she played no part in the gruelling negotiations that took years.

These incidents taken individually wouldn't necessarily be enough to derail a campaign, but how they play into the "metanarrative" speaks volumes about how her campaign might fare in the fall. For Gore in 2000, mentioning "Love Canal" and "invented the internet" were all it took to remind voters of the media storyline that Gore was a serial exaggerator. In the months between now and the general election, it's hard to imagine that the same wouldn't happen to Hillary Clinton, with scattered references to "Northern Ireland", "NAFTA", and "Tuzla" making their way into unrelated campaign coverage and subtly undermining her campaign.

In fact, that narrative is already being shaped to a lesser extent as the Obama campaign capitalizes on recent polls showing that a majority of Americans don't believe that Clinton is trustworthy :

This honesty gap that separates Clinton from her two opponents will ultimately end her campaign, either in the primary or general elections. Whether or not any subsequent claims about Clinton are valid would be irrelevant (as Gore could attest) as long as they play into the preconceived notions that people have about the candidate. With a public that already distrusts her, getting frequently caught misspeaking (to use the Clinton campaign's preferred euphemism) only reinforces the media narrative that Hillary Clinton is a liar who will say anything it takes to become president.

Comments

[DavidK08]

If she were just misspoken about the sniper fire, wouldn't she have had to have been under sniper fire at some other time? If she were never under sniper fire, then she was just lying and nothing less.

[doodlefarbe]

I had a dream one time that seemed sooooo real....

[foreverleft]

Schuster from MSNBC just reported that he also flew into the same landing area as Clinton. He stated they had to put on helmets, protective vests and that the transport employed a steep approach in order to avoid sniper fire.

[doodlefarbe]

I think this is part of Mr. Schuster's required CPS (Clinton Public Service) while on Double Secret Pimp Probation ("DSPP").

[hhkeller]

The Bosnian death toll of 100000 people is an enormous tragedy, but still it is not the same as the widely accepted figure of 200000. Hillary went to Bosnia for Souvenirs.

[AnitaBee]

Hillary Clinton also "misspoke" about her role in getting healthcare for children, under S-CHIP passed. Those who were involved in making this happen remember only that the Clinton White House was against it. See: http://consortiumnews.com/2008/031608b.html

[DavidK08]

True! I read a comment about how a woman was glad that Hillary took care of her family. It was ignorance that lead her to believe it was Hillary. Hillary didn't make these things happen. To be fair she did have something to do with the affair after it was hashed out.

[treadway123]

Ted Kenndy an Oran Hatch hammered out the Chip's program for children! Bill Clintokn shot it down the first time around.Tha­n ol Ted Kennedy got the backing of 200 different groups and hundred of people to back it, and at that time Ted Kennedy than asked Hillary to give a speech for the program promotion to encouraged that stupid husband of hers. So she used the lie she promoted this to win votes in Texas where chips covered more than 80% of the children! She than used the Lie she was always Behind NAFTA even as first lady (we now know as a lie by the first ladys paper release) and she used it to steal votes in Ohio! Now , she's going into Pennsylvania, and I guess there must be a lot of men and Military personal and family in Pennsylvan­ia----Beca­use now she lies about dodgeing Bullets in Bosnia. WHAT NEXT FOR THE NEXT STATE----AND WILL THE PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA FALL FOR HER LIE'S LIKE TEXAS, OHIO. people there are now mad as H---- for being lied to, and if nominated she lose's a lot of votes she previousely won. If we go back and redo Ohio obama would probally win today, because of Clintons lie's stole thier votes!

[smzzzz]

Hmmm ... the words of Obama's preacher are considered news for a week but the actual words of McCain (showing he doesn't understand the political situation in Iraq and Iran) and Clinton (showing she lies with impunity about her past in order to gain power) aren't of much interest to the MSM. what does that tell us?

[nazgul]

That the media is in the tank for Obama ;^)

[impeachBC]

That GE, Disney, Aol Time Warner and Rupert Murdoch don't want things to change! They'll be happy if either McCain or Clinton are elected because it will be the same old 'Status Quo.' They'll still get their never ending wars and huge military contracts and possibly a slice of the world media domination. I hate to sound cynical but it's all about money and power.

[jazzman]

impeachBC. Best reply of the day!!

[ChrisS13]

Yeah that's why Wall Street is behind Obama....

[GhostOfSchlesinger]

They're on it. Way on it. They have had to tilt heavily toward Hillary for a time. But, knowing she's going to lose, the Democratic leadership is working to close the door on her candidacy. This week is a turning point. Get ready for a huge story - one that will vault Obama to the nomination - within the next 72 hours.

[AnninCA]

Better hope not, or watch the Dem party go out and register as republican.

[nazgul]

And then there are Bubbya's campaign lies and distortions.

[DavidK08]

Clinton relies more on her supporters ignorance than loyalty. For some reason they allow her to only take the good. Anything bad that she did or was part of, wasn't her fault. Ignorance!

[AnninCA]

So as an Obama-supporter, how do you reconcile his misspeaking about how he didn't hear Wright talk about such matters?

[Lionel]

I decided to check dictionary.com because while I thought I understood what "misspoke" meant, it occurred to me that it wasn't a word I or my immediate acquaintances used frequently. I suppose the definition of misspoke might explain how it was Hillary's memory of what happened back in Bosnia - the sniper fire thing - never actually happened. Turns out, "misspoke" usually refers to someone who makes a mistake, not someone who was embellishing her foreign policy experience. That's not a "mis," that's a lie. I wonder if that is what Ms. Clinton intended?

[DukeFan]

I am so glad that someone is bringing up these outright lies from Hillary Clinton. She didn't just make a mistake. She looked in the camera during the debate and said that she remembered very well the trip to Bosnia. And, you can't tell me that after all that time that nobody in her campaign caught that slip up. The fact of it is...the Clinton's will lie or distort anything to try and win points and win an election. She has almost outright lied about all of her claimed 'experience that qualifies her to be Commander in Chief' in the White House. What a joke! Those First Lady papers told nothing..a­bsolutely nothing about anything other than tea parties and representing herself in a First Lady capacity. Where are her 8 years of tax returns? EIGHT years! Do we want another 4 years of lies? Now, the commentators are saying that the Clinton's will do nothing short of sabatoging Obama (if he gets the nomination) so that McCain will win and she can run in 2012. Another President who backs more war in office will be too late. There is nothing about Hillary that tells me she is a true dignified leader more or less suitable to be Commander in Chief. I used to be a huge Clinton supporter but now think Bill is sinking to new lows and Hillary just looks desperate and refuses to play fair within her own party.

[AnninCA]

I didn't know Wright said those things. I did know Wright said those things. *haha

[frappe]

Sounds like Hillary Clinton has borrowed from the Bush/Cheney School of Orwellian Governance. The way she can just fluidly mouth those lies is deeply disconcerting. If Obama had been caught in telling similar lies, we would not hear the end of it from the media. Somehow, this is being explained as just a "fish story" by the media. How nice of them. What else has she lied to us about? Can we now question her sincerity concerning her promises of help to the poor and middle class? And all of this so called "executive experience" that she bragged about is all just fiction. Megalomania is not a good thing to have in a leader. We need someone with both feet on the ground and ears carefully attuned to the needs of ordinary Americans.

[Oldchef]

Accomplish­ments--Oba­ma 2 bills passed in 3 years, Clinton 2 bills passed in 8 years. Obama-many co-sponsors, Clinton-few or none.

[57andfemale]

After her home loan speech yesterday, Obama released a letter he'd written a year ago to Bernanke and Paulson. Then, there was a reference to a speech HIllary gave on the subject a week before Obama's letter. Tit for tat? Maybe, but there's more: Hillary did produce legislation on home loans. It received NOT ONE co-sponsor. Why she cannot get co-sponsors for her bills is really, really weird.

[JackieW]

Hillary's actual quote when asked whether this calls into question her credibility: "No, 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." http://www.attytood.com/2008/03/exclusive_clinton_acknowledges.htmll) I'm pretty sure that anyone who says "you know" four times in essentially two sentences should NOT be commander in chief.

[frappe]

I agree. If she can't remember details of major events from less than fifteen years ago, then I question her credibility. They were deliberate lies and not "misstatements". Lies are deliberate. Misstatements are mental errors. She would've remembered VIVIDLY if there had been sniper fire and she and her group were forced to RUN to some shelter. She's a LIAR.

[AnninCA]

She's right. And that's how normal people see this. This strategy of attacking her for comments made while they are travelling is so not relevant to real voters. This is the stuff that feeds the fires of pundits and fanatical supporters of Obama.....­..but nobody else.

[rwe]

Obama also said after 20 years that Wrights racism, antisemitism and America hating were new to him and he had never heard before

[SLone08]

wrong... try reading

[TheRealMacDaddy]

Guess the carriage return still isn't working...­I'll try again. Go watch the TRUTH about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons not the edited, parsed soundbites of Fox News. You can find them here and please spread the word! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ&feature=related - and here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw&feature=related

[agirlandamonkey]

Obama said that he hadn't see those specific clips that were shown on tv and that he had not been in the church on those days.

[TheRealMacDaddy]

Go watch the TRUTH about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, not the edited, parsed soundbites offered by Fox News:

[IndyStacey]

rwe, there is no evidence to dispute what Obama says. To the contrary, there is evidence to support his claims that he never heard those statements from Rev. Wright. It has been verified that he was not present for the sermon which has been played over and over. But there IS evidence that Sen. Clinton lied.

[AnninCA]

No proof? He admitted it! *haha

[maria1253]

I will always believe that the Clinton set this Wright controversy up with Faux news. It fits in their way of politics. Here are the extended clips from which the endless soundbite was taken. They expose the lies and the "swiftboating" of not just Obama and Rev. Wright, but the entire church congregation. And Former Pres. Clinton has the nerve to allude to "all this stuff" when I'm sure their camp had everything to do it ...the kitchen sink strategy, remember?

[AnninCA]

I will always believe Obama brought this onto himself. The press had these tapes but were afraid to run them for fear of viewer backlash due to "racism" perceptions. When he attacked Ferarro? All bets were off. I don't think HIllary had anything to do with it. Neither did Ferarro. Ferarro is telling the truth. It was Obama who clipped out her sentence and made it into a national story. And it has truly been a gifthorse to HIllary. She couldn't have talked the press into running that story if she had promised the moon. The press needed a reason. Obama gave it to them with the Ferraro-flap. Proof that I know what I'm talking about? Zip. Nada. Bout like you. But that's my interpretation.

[cybersense]

Speaking more forcefully on human rights than any American dignitary has on Chinese soil, Hillary Rodham Clinton catalogued a devastating litany of abuse that has afflicted women around the world today and criticized China for seeking to limit free and open discussion of women's issues here.

[impeachBC]

Great! She's voted twice to approve unnecessary wars! She lies about past experience! She sits on the board of WalMart for 6 years and spoke glowingly of them until she began campaigning for president! She supported NAFTA until she began campaigning! I do not want another 'say anything the public wants to hear' president! I want real change! I demand truth, honesty and character from our next president! Hillary unfortunately exhibits none of these!

[iv08]

And yet, China is still abusing human rights. Be sure to give Hillary my thanks for completely ending all human rights violations in China. Its so wonderful to see all of the newfound freedoms the Chinese people now have thanks to Hillary's "speaking more forcefully than any American dignitary".

[seg78]

That was "just a speech!"

[cybersense]

I guess if the world believes race is an issue, it doesn't mean women.

[Casanavelaw]

Race is an issue. Women are an issue. Lying is a much bigger issue.

[oncesung]

It goes beyond outright lies. Clinton (both of them, but especially Hillary) come off as poseurs. Hillary is - what? 64? 60-something? Maybe it's genetic (that child, Chelsea, is in her twenties, but comports herself like a middle-school girl), but Hillary's wild-eyed, grinning, swirling parody of merriment looks so fake, especially in contrast to the very real moments when her hair draggles down the sides of her weary, deeply lined, unhappy face during those increasingly frequent moments when she's not rabid. She's a fake. My guess is that she'd rather be in a pair of ratty pajamas in bed with a magazine and a pint of Haggendaz than anywhere else. She wants the power. She doesn't really care about anyone else, so she's okay with lying and pretending and the whole make-believe kitch that she thinks will fool others and get her elected. It's tragic that her biggest block of voters are one-day Repubs.

[AustinDemocrat]

"Hillary's wild-eyed, grinning, swirling parody of merriment"--I love this sentence.

[AnninCA]

Hillary is 60. And your comment is ageist. So much for Obama raising your awareness.