http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20080325/...

The Clinton Credibility Gap: More Nixon than Gore
Chip Collis

---snip---

This unfortunate episode joins a cavalcade of other statements in which Hillary has been caught misspeaking like a rug. And the most prominent of these statements have been those that were used to pad her resume so much that you'd need an oversized pantsuit coat to hide it.

"Did I say I was instrumental to peace in Belfast? I mean that I was instrumental to TEAS in Belfast."

"Did I say I always disliked NAFTA? I mean I couldn't stand ASTA - stupid little terrier."

"Did I say it was an honor to be here with Barack? I mean I'm gonna rip his lungs out! And we'll still be friends."

All these are part and parcel of a broader pattern of what begins as self-deception, where previous goalposts cease to be operative, where people who dare to cross you get labeled as "Judas," and where by some weird transference, you not just accuse, but actually BELIEVE that your opponent is guiltier of all your sins than you are.

Some people are mistakenly equating Hillary's growing credibility gap with what happened to Al Gore. Leaving aside that Gore was unfairly smeared, while Hillary is self-inflicting these wounds, it's more accurate to equate her with Richard Nixon.

Nixon destroyed himself because he obsessed over what the Kennedys had "done to him." He went nutsy-commando with the Plumbers, with the Ellsberg break-in and the enemies list and, of course, with Watergate, because he rationalized that it had been done to him, and everyone else was doing it, and so he had to do it to protect his Presidency because he was what was best for - and about - America.

Hillary Clinton has become Nixon.

Clinton feels that all their years of being Atwatered and Starred and Roved meant that she HAD to play the game at sewer level just to survive. In fact, she was JUSTIFIED to play that way, because of what had been done to her and to Bill.

Justified, pre-absolved, sanctified and anointed.

And just as McGovern became the unwitting stand-in for the Kennedys as the focus of Nixon's ire and the target of his tricks, so too has Barack Obama become Hillary's bayonet dummy stand-in for the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

So when Hillary's - and Wolfson's - lips are moving, they're not misspeaking. They're getting even.