ACT TV’s screen dump of Hillary’s debate fib.

I was trying to title this, and this came to mind. It reads like the standard signature block to a letter addressed to Ann Landers back in the day. You imagine some star-crossed lover in the 70’s writing Ms Landers re a complicated story of a love triangle involving brothers (it was usually those of the fairer sex who wrote to Landers or her sister, Dear Abby). The whole ‘signing thing’ inspired the title of the movie Sleepless in Seattle. 

Anyway… If I may generalize here, the rank and file of the GOP is used to being lied to. Ted Cruz helped shut down the government in 2014, and it isn’t hard for Mister Google to find articles about it. What’s amazing is that he now denies that he did it, even when confronted by ostensible journalists. Bob Schieffer here couldn’t avoid laughing when Cruz prevaricated about it a couple years ago. To me, denying something that is well documented shows a special kind of contempt for one’s audience. Does Cruz believe nobody remembers? or does he assume that his backers will say “oh, that crazy Ted!” and shrug it off and pull the lever for him anyway?

Of course, Ted’s not alone in this…Is he? 

This is a bit less obvious. But still, lying about something where the video exists is not a good thing. And I remember what the late Christopher Hitchens had to say about Bill Clinton in his book NO ONE LEFT TO LIE TO. What bothered him about Bill was not necessarily his habit of prevaricating. It was the idea he could tell easily debunked lies and just go on as if nothing would happen and he’d worm his way out of things when the truth came out. It’s Gennifer Flowers. It’s Paula Jones. Anybody who’s told a few whoppers know that one waits for the day when someone shows up to call you out. 

Which brings me to the latest from the campaign trail. On Thursday during the debate between Sanders and Clinton, things got… unpleasant. The issue was people giving money to HRC’s campaign in order to buy influence. Hillary threw down the gauntlet:

Anybody that knows me, that thinks they can influence me, name anything they’ve influenced me on. Just name one thing

here’s the video—

And it didn’t take Sanders fans, amateur journalists, and all sorts of other watchers to respond with this video from 2004. In it, Elizabeth Warren talks about Clinton’s abrupt 180 degree turn on an issue of interest to the banks. 

long segment here:

Look. In the grand scheme of things, dumber lies have been told in politics. But my concern here is that Hillary lied about something that was easy to truth-check. I get a funny feeling when politicos lie to me about shit I can check easily. This doesn’t take a ‘Snopes’ visit. In fact, I knew about the Warren video a couple weeks ago. Has nobody on Hillary’s team ever heard of ‘Opposition research’? And doesn’t the sloppy use of a bromide like this indicate that HRC has contempt for the people who support her? 

And as I’ve noted before, there’s a big ol’ tractor trailer full of Opposition research assembled by Karl Rove that’s sitting somewhere in Texas. If Hillary can self-inflict wounds like this, what happens when/if we get to the General Election? The GOP is sitting back right now, afraid to put themselves into the primary fight (they also have lots of problems of their own). 

Bernie doesn’t have to smear Hillary. She can do the job herself.

What’s the DNC to do?

Signed,

Blowing Election 2016 in New England