Reply #7: OK -- everyone take a real deep breath. [View All]

[nichomachus]

Before throwing around terms like "lies" and "smears" and "switfboating."

Hillary told a story as gospel truth, when, by her campaign's own admission they hadn't been able to check it out.

It turns out that the story was partly true and partly not.

However, as anyone who has ever worked for a newspaper can tell you, this kind of sloppy reporting is fatal. It opens you to the charge, as it did to Hillary, that you're making things up. This is why a good reporter or editor will sit on a story that hasn't been checked out.

It's all about credibility. Hillary should not have told a story about real people, especially when the family's wounds hadn't yet healed, that hadn't been checked out 10 different ways to make sure it was absolutely true the way she was telling it -- and without making sure the family wasn't going to be pissed off for being dragged into the campaign.

So, in the end, it's not about "lying" or "smearing" or "swiftboating," but about sloppiness in the campaign. She has severely damaged her credibility, and has done it several times. Once that sets in, it starts to take on a life of its own.

Again, it's a sign of poor political instincts -- like the grin-and-wave at the Martin Luther King assassination site.