Hillary in Tuzla

I have no idea where Tuzla is. I spent the 90's trying not to think about Bosnia and Serbia and Croatia, because it was just one too many things to have to worry about. At some point you have to block some things out, or you burn out.

So I don't have a lot of background on Hillary's trip to Tuzla. But it's pretty clear that she did not handle this well. Andrew Sullivan provided the video:



Josh Marshall has a more detailed response.

The upshot is that Hillary claimed that she went into Tuzla, in Bosnia, under sniper fire. The video record clearly disputes that. This should not be a big deal - her memory is playing tricks on her. Big deal. But the urge to spin seems to be getting her in trouble.

I don't want to criticize Hillary for stuff like this. I take no pleasure in this. It's no fun being slowly more ever-disillusioned. But at best, this is sloppy. At worst, it's deceptive. The woman has been in the public spotlight for many years. She allegedly has world-class people working for her. She has all kinds of resources. When she makes a comment in public, she should know that there are literally thousands of people waiting to prove her right or wrong, and they have the means to do so. She is clearly wrong. That's not a big deal - people misremember things all the time. As soon as someone flagged this, she should have just admitted that she was wrong, and the story would have died. But she had to keep fighting. She claims being a "fighter" as one of her key virtues. She also claims "competence." But it is looking more and more like she isn't competent when she needs to be, and she fights when it's just not a good idea.