Marc Ambinder, Spencer Ackerman and Keith Olbermann have done a wonderful job exposing John McCain's shocking distortion of Iraq's history.

But how does this affect McCain politically? Is it just a gaffe like Iraq-Pakistan's border?

No way.

This is John McCain's Tuzla moment. It's about the self-aggrandizing lying.

Back in March when Hillary Clinton claimed she braved sniper fire in Tuzla in 1996, she wasn't pandering to voters in the swing state of Bosnia.  But in swapping the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Green Bay Packers in his famous tale of duping his Vietnamese captors, John McCain Friday made a cynical play to win over the people of Pennsylvania.

Most of the electorate understands that the U.S. is in sorry shape, which is why more than 80 percent of poll respondents say we’re on the wrong track. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has nothing to do with any of that. The idea that his nonsense may shape the outcome of this election is both tragic and absurd.

That is the concluding paragraph of Overkill and Short Shrift, Herbert's NY Times column today, in which he calls us all to account, the press for its focus, and the American people for continuing to focus on something of little importance.  As he notes:

We’ve allowed the entire political process in what is perhaps the most important election in the U.S. since World War II to become thoroughly warped by the histrionics of a loony preacher from the South Side of Chicago.

There’s something wrong with us.

You should read his column.

And because you can, I am not going to write that much about it, but rather about us, the press, and our politics.  

When the Superdelegates decide whom they are going to support, if electability factors into their decision at all, they should consider the constituencies and who can unite those constituencies and the party.

In the six weeks since I drafted the comments below, we've had Tuzlagate, Wrightgate, Bittergate, Who'sToughergate and the continuing, disheartening, disengenuous use of race and class cards, multiple times.  Feeding these topics has been the media's collective, schizophrenic enabling of stereotypical, insulting commentary, regurgitating "spin" as if it is gospel.  Obama gets taken to task, repeatedly, for comments made by someone else, but the MSM can't seem to call HRC's comments about Tuzla for what they obviously were: a lie.  Just last night, Chris Matthews actually said, "...this is over...", then opined that, perhaps, the media has perpetuated the contest by continually describing it as even.  YA THINK?!?  And then there's this BS relating to HRC's derived fairy tale about toughness and electability.  Why, exactly, is there not more talk, both from the Obama campaign and the MSM, about the fact that, currently, Obama is withstanding Rovian attacks from two fronts...HRC and the Republicans.  Yes he still leads in every mathematically relevant category.  If that doesn't demonstrate the requisite "toughness" to win in November, despite the shameless tactics of the Clinton campaign, then what is the barometer for electability?

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Referenced under Fair Use: Day of the Jackal, Enemy at the Gates, The Jackal, Jarhead, JFK, The Living Daylights, Return of the Jedi, Saving Private Ryan, Shooter, Smokin' Aces, Sniper 3, The Big Red One, file footage broadcast by MSNBC's Hardball.  Licensed material: C-17 video courtesy of FlightLevel350.com, "Armalite Rifle" font by Vic Fieger, vicfieger.com

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Referenced under Fair Use: Day of the Jackal, Enemy at the Gates, The Jackal, Jarhead, JFK, The Living Daylights, Return of the Jedi, Saving Private Ryan, Shooter, Smokin' Aces, Sniper 3, The Big Red One, file footage broadcast by MSNBC's Hardball.  Licensed material: C-17 video courtesy of FlightLevel350.com, "Armalite Rifle" font by Vic Fieger, vicfieger.com

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Referenced under Fair Use: Day of the Jackal, Enemy at the Gates, The Jackal, Jarhead, JFK, The Living Daylights, Return of the Jedi, Saving Private Ryan, Shooter, Smokin' Aces, Sniper 3, The Big Red One, file footage broadcast by MSNBC's Hardball.  Licensed material: C-17 video courtesy of FlightLevel350.com, "Armalite Rifle" font by Vic Fieger, vicfieger.com

With a shot or two of Crown Royal in her, she's a nimble little minx:

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Referenced under Fair Use:

• Day of the Jackal
• Enemy at the Gates
• The Jackal
• Jarhead
• JFK
• The Living Daylights
• Return of the Jedi
• Saving Private Ryan
• Shooter
• Smokin' Aces
• Sniper 3
• The Big Red One
• File footage broadcast by MSNBC's Hardball

Licensed material:

• C-17 video courtesy of FlightLevel350.com
• "Armalite Rifle" font by Vic Fieger, vicfieger.com

Brought to you by Crown Royal. Always delightful - especially with a beer chaser.

Crown Royal - where the elite meet to greet the man on the street.

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Referenced under Fair Use:

• Day of the Jackal
• Enemy at the Gates
• The Jackal
• Jarhead
• JFK
• The Living Daylights
• Return of the Jedi
• Saving Private Ryan
• Shooter
• Smokin' Aces
• Sniper 3
• The Big Red One
• File footage broadcast by MSNBC's Hardball

Licensed material:

• C-17 video courtesy of FlightLevel350.com
• "Armalite Rifle" font by Vic Fieger, vicfieger.com

[From the Frog Pond]

Lost in the uproar over just how immensely craptacular the ABC News debate was, is the fact that Hillary Clinton flat out admitted lying repeatedly to the American public.  At least, she admitted to doing that if you can define lying as saying something that you know not to be the case.

From the transcript:

Brought to you by Crown Royal. Always delightful - especially with a beer chaser.

Crown Royal - where the elite meet to greet the man on the street.

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.
.

Referenced under Fair Use:

• Day of the Jackal
• Enemy at the Gates
• The Jackal
• Jarhead
• JFK
• The Living Daylights
• Return of the Jedi
• Saving Private Ryan
• Shooter
• Smokin' Aces
• Sniper 3
• The Big Red One
• File footage broadcast by MSNBC's Hardball

Licensed material:

• C-17 video courtesy of FlightLevel350.com
• "Armalite Rifle" font by Vic Fieger, vicfieger.com

Brought to you by Crown Royal. Always delightful - especially with a beer chaser.

Crown Royal - where the elite meet to greet the man on the street.

.
.
.

Referenced under Fair Use:

• Day of the Jackal
• Enemy at the Gates
• The Jackal
• Jarhead
• JFK
• The Living Daylights
• Return of the Jedi
• Saving Private Ryan
• Shooter
• Smokin' Aces
• Sniper 3
• The Big Red One
• File footage broadcast by MSNBC's Hardball

Licensed material:

• C-17 video courtesy of FlightLevel350.com
• "Armalite Rifle" font by Vic Fieger, vicfieger.com

No, I am not for McCain. On the contrary.

But something occurred to me as I boarded the little yellow bus to school today. I took a seat as usual, tilted my head and rocked it to and fro, mouth drooling and agape, awkwardly pounding the back of my wrist against my chest with one hand whilst reading Dianetics with the other. There was no one to impress today, the girls were gone, but it was by now, a habit hard to break.

I reflected on my life and the concept of reality. I am a card-carrying idiot who wrote to Santa well into my twenties. But even so, not for the life of me, can I understand why anyone over the age of three could believe anything coming out of Hillary's mouth after watching the Sniper-gate debacle unfold. A child will believe in Santa, but if you show him a video of a groggy daddy wrapping presents under the Christmas tree and putting a bike together, the child will usually get the picture: Santa is make-believe.

There is a Presidential debate coming up on Wednesday, in Pennsylvania.

We have all seen the rather funny lines of HRC and McCain this week calling Obama 'elitist' and 'out of touch'. Obama has retreated a bit, and the majority of the media I have seen, (even CNN!) were basically laughing at people who a) made over $100 million in the last 7 years and b) married into a nine-figure beer fortune, calling a man who just paid off his student loans a few years ago 'elitist'.

Dead issue? Not if Hillary has anything to say about it.

So it might be time to being up some other issues that HRC & Co. have tried to deaden.

"If you want to know the truth about a man, ask his ex-mistress."  Unfortunately, the Bush syndicate is like other crime families[1]: a good soldier will remains loyal, even if the Boss shoots them in the face. The Clinton syndicate is practically as close-knit, but a key member of their "inner circle" has switched teams, proving that if the price is right, "there is no honor among thieves."

To say that Dick Morris is a member of the oldest profession would be to unfairly demean hard-working ladies of the evening.  He oozes under the door like a Ken Mehlman (I met Mehlman once, and had an overpowering urge to take a long shower).  But in "schemes hatched in Hell, there are no angels for witnesses."  

A few days ago, I got an e-mail from an Obama supporter with a link to video that I'd been desperately searching for: that moment in February, 2007 when Hillary Clinton not only refused to admit making a mistake on Iraq, but told people they ought to consider Obama or Edwards if it was that important to them.

I've taken that clip and integrated it into a new video, Hillary Clinton: War, Lies, and Misjudgment. Here it is:

As always, let me know what you think, and please share it with friends! (digg)

President Bill Clinton has made another blunder on the campaign trail -- playing the victim card and making exaggerated and inaccurate statements while sticking up for his wife and her fact-challenged tale of Bosnian sniper fire. And he did so on camera, injecting his own bluster and bogus claims, just when the story had started to die down.  

During campaign stops in Jasper and Boonville, Indiana, yesterday, Mr. Clinton told voters that his wife had -- just once -- "misstated" the circumstances of her 1996 Bosnia trip, attributing her Tuzla tale of dodging sniper fire to exhaustion. And instead of holding his wife accountable, he castigated the press for overreacting to her inaccurate account.

First, let's go to the videotape. Then let's go over just how many facts Mr. Clinton plowed over in his blundering defense of his wife.