Frank Rich writes this morning in the NY Times about Hillary's Tuzla fib:
A new bottom-up media culture is challenging any candidate’s control of a message.
Of all the moments at which Hillary has been hurt by her own staff's disregard of the new rules of war, this latest flap is the most ironic.
There's more...
Rich says the Tuzla affair is creating a perfect storm because it comes as the war in Iraq roars back into public consciousness.
Perhaps she thought that by taking the huge gamble of misspeaking one more time about her narrow escape on the tarmac at Tuzla, she could compensate for misvoting on Iraq. Instead, her fictionalized derring-do may have stirred national trace memories of two of the signature propaganda stunts of the war: the Rambo myth the Pentagon concocted for Pvt. Jessica Lynch and President Bush’s flyboy antics on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln during "Mission Accomplished."
How could they forget about YouTube?
Sometimes only a shrink can decipher why some politicians persist in flagrantly taking giant risks, all but daring others to catch them in the act (see: Spitzer, Eliot).
As usual, Rich is nuanced, entertaining, and although he has long favored Obama he's not gloating. Rather, he has some insightful things to say about how politics is just a bit different now, which contribute to our understanding of why Obama should win. Read the whole thing, you'll be glad you did.