How a person handles a mistake says more about them than the actual mistake.

[Erin Elizabeth]

When Clinton made the mistake of lying about Bosnia, that was bad. Doing it repeatedly was worse.

But it's how a mistake is handled that really shines a light on a person's character. If I were one of her advisers, I'd recommend that she issue a sincere apology with NO excuses or rationalizations (that tends to take what would be a good thing--an apology--and make it worse by giving the other side ammo to continue talking about it). Just an apology. Short, simple, sweet, sincere.

Then drop it. I'd tell her not to mention it again.

I certainly wouldn't have advised her to make a joke about it on Jay Leno and laugh over it. I wouldn't call it "misspeaking," either. People do know the difference between misspeaking and lying, after all, and it would make it look as if her campaign didn't even think what happened was any big deal. But it is a big deal, because a lot of people have this weird trust thing with people who make stuff up out of whole cloth.

Someone's giving her some seriously bad advice at the top. If she had just apologized and moved on, and no other blatant lies came out, that would have been better. But refusing to see how bad it is to lie by joking about it? Dealing with a mistake by making another mistake?

That doesn't bode well, in my mind, for her possible performance as leader of the country. What kind of whoppers would she tell the leaders of other countries? What kind of whoppers would she tell the American people once in office?

Everyone fucks up from time to time. But to pile more fuckery on top of it is amazingly tone deaf and foolish--two characteristics I'm kind of tired of in the presidency.

[BklynChick]

1. aside from getting bad advice, you need to dig a little inside yourself and know what the right

thing to do is. obviously, she doesn't have that little inner voice telling her what's right and wrong. that's scary to me.

[Erin Elizabeth]

3. That's a good point.

I was assuming she has to totally rely on those around her to tell her the right thing to do. I guess I don't see any evidence that she knows what the right thing is to do.

[blm]

2. Bush handled the failure to find WMDs the same way - he joked about it for the media.

As if getting people laughing will hide the deceit.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. The problem for her is that she is expecting to President

you cannot behave like that if you are President. Bush has made enough lies to last us a lifetime.

[Erin Elizabeth]

6. I wonder if that's another factor in all this.

That people normally don't like bald-faced lies, of course, but we're extra sensitive to them after eight years of bush and company?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. the general public 'buys' her story (she relies on that llike GW Bush))

the trouble is that the normal voters (ie. ones that doesn't come to DU LOL!) only hear snippets from her on the news or talkshows and they believe her. Most people don't do extensive research on what she says!

[DJ13]

5. Someone's giving her some seriously bad advice at the top.

Maybe, or it could be Her Highness isnt listening to her advisors as much as we think she is, thinking she and Bill know the voters better than they do (ego has long been a Clinton trait).

The Clintons believe they are the ultimate political couple after Bill's terms as President, but they never remember that Bill wasnt a good enough politician to win with a real majority in the GE's.

[elehhhhna]

7. These "twighlight zone" disconnected reactions of hers remind me of...

GW. And it's worked very well for him.

[SeaLyons]

8. She was delightful on Leno

and you guys just harp on Bosnia and whatever else you can think to put her down. I don't think the majority of the country is incapable of seeing her as a human being and making a mistake.

[Erin Elizabeth]

10. Oh sure I see her as human.

What was I supposed to see her as, immortal? Of course she's human. And she made a big mistake with that. But instead of apologizing, she piled another mistake on top of it, by joking about something like that.

I'm not harping on anything...I felt "meh" about her before the Bosnia thing, but that really bothered me. Like I said, I've had enough of that the last eight years.

[SeaLyons]

12. ...

I would assume anyone that's posting at DU has had enought of the last 8 years...at least we have that in common, and that's precisely why I'm supporting Hillary..


:hi:

[Erin Elizabeth]

15. Peace!

[asjr]

13. She wasn't joking about Bosnia. She

was laughing at herself for saying something foolish. Blessed are we who can laugh at ouselves because we will never cease to be amused. She probably feels as bad as anyone else who does something human like that. She is not an automaton. We must remember, with the exception of GWBush and John McCain all the others are human and as such have faults. With puppets we just don't know.

[Erin Elizabeth]

14. She was joking about her lie.

[Mooney]

20. It wasn't a mistake.

It was a lie. And the majority of the country hates her fucking guts. This won't help.

[Hepburn]

11. IMO, it is not bad advice she is getting....

...she has a severe personality flaw. Kind of lives in a Walter Mitty world.

[ecstatic]

30. Bingo. She is a grown woman. No personal adviser

has the power to make her make a fool of herself. Obama breaks with his advisers all the time.

[Lucky 13]

16. Think about your work environment.

If someone I work with fucks up and comes to me immediately, admits the problem and wants to make it better, we move forward and don't dwell on the mistake itself. The most important thing is figuring out how to make it better and fixing it. Everyone makes mistakes and dwelling on it is just humiliating someone unneccessarily. It takes courage to admit you were wrong and those people are the ones we want to hang on to as employees.

If someone I work with fucks up and tries to hide it from me or lies about something, then makes up some excuse about misspeaking or some other non-sense, THEY WILL GET CALLED ON IT and will likely get CHEWED OUT. And in most places I've ever worked, lying is grounds for dismissal depending on severity.

These are the standards all Americans in the workforce are held to. Why shouldn't Hillary be held to the same standards?

[Erin Elizabeth]

17. Really good points.

[nichomachus]

18. It wasn't a mistake

You need to be careful about calling it a "mistake" and putting it in the same class with calling someone by the wrong name or leaving your umbrella on the bus. We all make those sorts of mistakes.

It's not as if she forgot the name of the town in Bosnia or claimed that she was shot at in Bosnia when she was really shot at in Herzegovina. Those sorts of things can be explained away by misspeaking or sleep deprivation.

She lied and she told a provably false story.

Now, there are lies and there are lies. If someone asks you if you've done something, and, even though you did, you deny it, that's a lie, but it's an understandable lie. You're trying to cover your ass. It's wrong, but we've probably all done it at some point in our lives.

She simply made something up -- something designed to make her look important. What she totally ignored is that every word, every syllable she says, every gesture she makes, every wave in her hair is now under a microscope. With her umpity-ump years of experience, you'd think she would know that.

It was incredibly stupid -- and unfortunately, stupid isn't something you can apologize for and have it be all better, if you're trying to be president of the US.

Had she referred to Obama as "Osama," that could be explained away by fatigue, and, as shocked and angry as Obama supporters would be, she could apologize her way out of it.

The Bosnia thing demonstrated poor judgment, lack of political skill, and a disregard for the truth. Those aren't things you can apologize for, when the criteria voters are judging you by are judgment, political skill, and honesty. Given the Clinton family history on prevarication, she should avoid saying anything she doesn't have documented proof for.

It was a much more serious affair than many people realize.

[Erin Elizabeth]

19. I have to agree with you.

I just meant in the general sense that it's a mistake to lie.

[blondie58]

21. I was thinking that this was a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King

but I was wrong.

Belief: Martin Luther King Quotes
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.

Belief: Martin Luther King Quotes
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Birthday: Martin Luther King Quotes
The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.

Character: Martin Luther King Quotes
The time is always right to do what is right.

Character: Martin Luther King Quotes
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and conveniences, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Challenge: Martin Luther King Quotes
The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where the stand in times of challenge and controversy.

Belief: Martin Luther King Quotes
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.


what a wise, wise man. You are missed, Dr. King.

[DemGa]

22. You call Hillary a liar - but where is the proof?

Is Barack Obama a liar? By your standard, this must certainly be so.

[Erin Elizabeth]

23. The proof?

So you're saying she DID have to land in Bosnia amidst being shot at and it was so dangerous that they couldn't even be greeted on the tarmac?

Because there's a video that proves otherwise. I'm not sure you want to go down that road, LOL.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

26. Nor has a video surfaced of another landing where there WAS

sniper fire. Then it would have been misspeaking - confusing one event with another. In this case, it never happened. If it had, there would have been news reports which could be found on the internets.

[Erin Elizabeth]

28. Exactly, thank you.

It boggles the mind that anyone would even attempt to defend this.

[Erin Elizabeth]

24. The proof?

So you're saying she DID have to land in Bosnia amidst being shot at and it was so dangerous that they couldn't even be greeted on the tarmac?

Because there's a video that proves otherwise. I'm not sure you want to go down that road, LOL.

[tekisui]

25. She said there was no greeting on he tarmac. Video shows there was.

She said she had to run, head down. Video shows she didn't.

[Catherine Vincent]

27. Get over it!

[Erin Elizabeth]

29. Nothing to get over. I'm discussing on a discussion

board, is there a problem? Is this how Clinton supporters are going to handle all her character flaws? "Get over it?" Ok. Because that works well, LOL.