Hillary kept pushing the story AFTER her campaign was notified by the NYT, and had issued a statement acknowledging they didn't vet it:

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/04/did-clinton-cam.html

Technically she wasn't lying, in the sense that she was just repeating a story that someone had told her and that she hadn't bothered to have checked for accuracy.

But what this has in common with the Bosnia sniper story is a complete lack of common sense. We don't send first ladies and their sixteen-year-old daughters (and Sinbad!) into war zones where sniper fire would put their lives in danger. And hospitals don't refuse to treat pregnant women if they can't come up with $100 in cash.

If lying about Bosnia (and other things) doesn't disqualify her, surely the utter lack of common sense must.

Sad story.

Jed Report states that HRC told the story again last night (Friday, April 4) at 9 PM Eastern, just a couple hours before the NYT story came online containing her campaign's acknowledgement that they couldn't dispute the hospital's denial.

http://www.jedreport.com/

Ouch and double ouch.

And now Senator Clinton wants to run the country like she ran her campaign? This is a case where past performance is an indication of future returns! The campaign failed to foresee that small states could matter, that small donors could matter, that caucus states could matter, that this might not be wrapped up by super Tuesday (what would they do if Iran behaved differently than they did foresee?), the stories will be fact checked, that repeating a "misstatement" does not make it true, that a leader is shielded in a cocoon of trusted advisors, where loyalty trumps competence?! Remember Solis-Doyle - no one dared to tell HRC just how bad the campaign finances were? Where did we see all this before... (hint: seven 1/2 years)

I love the way her campaign spokesperson casts doubt on the hospital's "version" of the story!! Why can't they ever man up and admit when they are wrong???

Stop the Tuzla Terror before she lies again

Tuzla's just making Greg's job more difficult every day isn't she!

I guess that's why Greg gets paid the big bucks.

How can Democrats continue to take that woman seriously?

This is not anything like the Bosnia story, as it was second hand.

Sure, her folks did not bother to vet the story, perhaps because it fit her narrative, or perhaps because they were stretched, or perhaps because they just didn't bother. Stupid in any way.

As someone who supported Al Gore in 2000 I am extremely sensitive to the press coverage of candidates and their personal stories on the trail. The Bosnia story was just plain idiotic. This story is less so, but when you se Hillary tell it, it seems like she was told a version of this story and it became more horrible each time on the trail. I will be looking out for all of the versions of this story and its evolution in her stump speech.

A pattern is developing. The press will latch on. I am a hugely partisan Obama supporter and I can see hat the press will use this angle to try and drive her out of the race. As far as I am concerned there are many many other reasons this race should be over, but this story is not one of them.

I just joined. Do they let Obama people post offensive rants? I was hoping this would be an intelligent alternative to DU

O such a disingenuous little lamb!

you know there's a great feature here - you can put up your own blog post once you join and rant away and that way you don't take up thread space.

:)

Ok, DirkVA, you get one of these too:

(-.-)(_ _)(-.-) I bow in your direction. Well done.

Should she get nominated (but she won't,) this fake story would be played by Republicans to no end as prove that we don't really need to fix Health Care: The troubles of the system are only feature of Hillary's imagination.

When you haven't been able to vet a story, you would do better not using it.

O you are kidding me?

Rotflmao - next she'll be saying she voted against the war and he didn't!

O Hillary, honey - please give it up before you do or say anything else cause I want to hold onto some shred of my illusions about you and Bill.

$100 is way short of what an ER visit costs - it's chump change to any hospital.

no shit.

A friend just had a hysterectomy - the bill for the two days she was there, just the rooms - operating room, recovery and overnight - $14,000. That doesn't count the surgeon's charge or the other doctor's charges for every visit, every order. Then the drugs, the whole thing.

That's a stupid amount of money. That doesn't pay for parking for a day to visit someone anymore hardly.

So if this story she's been telling passes her standard for "vetting" then how much stock can we put in her claims that she's been vetted?

How much credence can we give anything she says with one thing after another being proven to be lies... errrrr... sorry... cases where she has "misspoke."

How can Clinton say that with a straight face?

She was supporting the war at least until 2006!

Ugh. I really hope this quote is not true. I don't think I can keep saying "I'll vote for Clinton over McCain" otherwise.

The IRON ***** Strikes again!!!To put a twist on a Quote by another famous DEM:She will LIE today She will LIE Tomorrow and She will continue to LIE forever.So what else is new huh guys?The Iron ***** will continue this kind of behavior until 7734 freezes over!!!

"I just joined. Do they let Obama people post offensive rants?"

If, by "offensive," you mean reality-based posts: you bet your ass they do!

Love and kisses,
The "Obama People"

With all due respect to idiotic [sic]: DirkVA for Vice-President!

Had enough?

Sorry ... can't post now ... sniper fire ... send marines ...must ... keep ... head ... down.

I don't think it matters anymore. Obama has half of the the democratic electoral pie. In the general election he will have one quarter of the pie. Thanks for the legacy Josh Marshall. To bad you don't know how to read an exit poll.

Of course the hospital is disputing this story. A patient of theirs died. Only 13 maternal deaths occur for every 100,000 births in this country, so the woman should not have died. Something went seriously wrong. So the hospital lawyers moved swiftly to get a PR statement out, absolving them of responsibility, before the wrongful death lawsuit gets filed.

The hospital maintains that the woman in question was in the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with them when she died, and had never been refused service. They also say that the Clinton campaign never contacted them to check on the story. "We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story," said the hospital's CEO.

There is something wrong with this story. The woman should not have died.

The woman had insurance, the Times story indicates. The whole thing is a canard, apparently. It hasn't been said what Hillary's staff did to vet the story ("we tried"), but it seems like next to nothing, or nothing.

Reagan used to stand up and tell phoney tales (welfare queens and the usual right-wing masturbatory fantasies) and the press would point out that they were phoney, and nobody seemed to care and he'd just tell more. Just about every time he spoke, it seemed.

Milla's comment is just..

wow.

Where's TrollCritic when we need him?

Hi Milla,

You don't have to worry here. We do embrace the views of all lesbians and blacks, not just lawyers :)

well, most black people and most lesbians are quite ignorant and silly, why would you embrace the views of all of them. Example: Obama's fruitcake minister. What a laughable clown, with his clown suit dashiki.

Dammit ... an untimely unneccessary death used for political fodder without "vetting" it is NOT the issue. An allegation like that should trigger a full-blown investingation and her staff should know that. As purported health advocates, they failed miserably on this. And since she touts her health care package as cornerstone to her experience ... this DOES matter. The carelessness borders on incompetence and cynicism. Any legal staff on her campaign KNOW to ask for whatever investigations were being conducted ... and they KNOW how to vet stories. She ran with this story like a child running with scissors.

This was Hillary's domestic *red phone* moment and she failed it.

And don't she DARE say it's due to lack of sleep ... if it's gotten too hot, then get out of the kitchen, MissyPantsOnFire.

My goodness, Milla, you are one mean, nasty and hateful repugnican. May the bird of paradise fly up your nose ...

If you can not verify a story, you do not run around and tell everyone it is true. Especially a story such as this one. I hope the hospital sues Hillary for slander. To think about how the people that work at this hospital must have felt to hear Hillary Clinton denounce them as heartless monsters.

An apology should be issued by Hillary Clinton, not a campaign memo or a campaign surrogate.

Oh, brother, Blue Skies sounds like a typical blther-machine. and yes, I got tired doing legal work for major intl corporations, now I do dealmaking in Eurasia, much more interesting and a lot more money. Eh, and I get to nail girls half my age, which is a nice perk of being good looking, smart and funny. Man, in US most girls are dull, chunky and ignorant. Here in Moscow there's not a girl who is over 54 kilos, and they're all knock-out gorgeous, and uninfected by that loathesome disease, feminism.

Eh, and I get to nail girls half my age, which is a nice perk of being good looking, smart and funny. Man, in US most girls are dull, chunky and ignorant. Here in Moscow there's not a girl who is over 54 kilos, and they're all knock-out gorgeous, and uninfected by that loathesome disease, feminism.

ROF and pissing myself laughing.

Where is this paradise? Where is this place where lovely women are willing to do whatever pleases you? It sounds like a whorehouse. Those are available everywhere.

Clinton kicked your ass.

Well except for the part where Milosevic was still walking around a free man, yeah.

LOL!

No offense, gotalife -

Yeah, dat's me - An American Woman: a dull, chunky 105 pound appellate lawyer.

Back to the thread topic.

Does anyone know if the family of the poor woman who died, have been asked about what happened. Did the Clinton campaign try to confirm what happened with them, before running with the story. How did the Woman's name become public. I thought that the HIPA laws would have prevented that from happening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnSR9QrrutM

I wish all candidates would stay away from these kind of examples. People know that Health care is a mess. There is no need to beat them over the head with examples like this.

A young woman is dead. Should any politician be trying to use that tragedy on the campaign trail.

Were we not grossed out enough, as Democrats, when the Republicans hijacked the tragedy of Terri Schiavo, for their own partisan agenda, that we now seek to emulate their worst practices.

I'm not going to argue about Kosovo because I do think Clinton had a siginificant success there.

I wish I could say the same for Iraq and Haiti.

He bombed the shit out of Iraq the whole time he was in office - remember the baby food plant?

I'm not a big fan of Bill's foreign policy except I do know how very well thought of he is around the world and that always gave me pride.

Wish he hadn't gone so far over the edge during this campaign - I really loved the guy until he started revealing some things I had defended him against, that others accused him of. Now I feel a bit foolish for the years I've defended him, but that's the way it goes.

I posted the following last night on another thread but I think these considerations are too important to ignore so I'm revising and extending my remarks and posting them here.

Was it only 11 months ago that Rudy arranged and then canceled a visit to a Iowa farm family because they weren't millionaires and hence wouldn't be a suitable prop for Rudy's anti-estate tax message? I put this in the same kind of category: screwing people thoughtlessly to further your own ambitions.

Hillary throwing this hospital to the wolves probably does much more damage to both the medical facility and the Athens community. Guiliani humiliated and hurt the feelings of a couple of supporters and turned them into enemies. He probably damaged himself considerably too. Even though he was the national frontrunner back in May 2007 he wound up not even contesting IA.

Hillary didn't name the town, hospital or deputy sheriff in that one Wyoming video but it seems to me anybody in that area of OH would already know the bare bones of this horrific story about the dead girl and her dead baby and know exactly what hospital Hillary was attacking. There was ample media coverage locally when it happened that was further fleshed out with Hillary's inaccurate story telling. If the truth hadn't come out the O’Bleness Memorial Hospital could have suffered (and may have anyway) irreparable harm. That's the kind of rumor - especially given the stamp of authority of a presidential candidate who won SE OH overwhelming - that can kill a hospital in a small town like Athens. According to their website O’Bleness started out as a maternity hospital back in 1921 and it's still a major focus of their care. If Hillary's criticism devastated their revenues and drove them out of business it would have left a major hole in Athen's healthcare infrastructure. Traveling an hour to see a doctor because falsehoods drove your local ones out of town makes getting healthcare a more arduous proposition, lessens everybody's quality of life and makes small towns even less viable.

You'd think any candidate with as much experience with healthcare issues as she has would take those possible ramifications into account but I guess when you're in desperation mode serious considerations get thrown to the wind.

This whole story reminds me of the kind of crap the press absolutely pummelled Gore with during the 2000 campaign. Unfortunately for Hillary, it comes on the heels of the very real Bosnia exaggeration, making it appear she has a habit of embellishment (to be kind), or lying (to be blunt).

Now comes the news that she claimed she was speaking out against the war before Obama. And just as unfortunately for Hillary, this one is easy to prove false. In fact, it's already getting press, and I suspect, will continue to do so.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/in-oregon-clint.html

Why she does this is anyone's guess : laziness, sloppy campaigning, lax vetting, insecurity, exaggeration or lying. There's just not a good reason, and the sad thing is that it's so unnecessary. Hillary doesn't need to embellish to be a viable candidate, and every incident like this simply diminishes her and her very real accomplishments.

And that's what's really sad about this story. It certainly isn't a characteristic I'd want in a president, but (full disclosure) I'm an Obama supporter. That fact doesn't make this any easier to watch, though. Hillary had many chances for a graceful exit from this primary. I'm afraid that window just closed.

It is a federal crime for a hospital to turn away an emergency patient for inability to pay. I would be extremely surprised if the health care guru senator doesn't know that. Surely her people do. It is an important factor in health care financing. That story should have been a focus of a serious investigation, not idle chatter.

Chuck Heston is dead. Maybe now they can pry the gun out of his cold, dead hands.

Check out this ABC report about Hillary telling the false story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THzgXqlmacY

Pay particular attention to the clip that shows Hillary sitting on a couch with the Deputy Sheriff. You can see that it is staged for the camera. She is not just meeting someone at a rally. She is sitting on a couch with him, and you can see him struggling to remember his lines.

Look at the shape of the guy, and he is supposed to be a law officer. He looks more like Otis than Barney or Andy.

Look at him again. Would you run with a story this guy told, without checking it out thoroughly.

This looks like another one of those Clinton Camp plants, like the ones they were using to earlier to ask Hillary questions she knew were planted in the audience.

The entire thing looks like another Clinton planted Fairy Tale.

I don't watch fixed noise but one of the wingnuts I argue with on another blog posted this:

"Fox News is sticking up for your girl by showing the cop that lied to her about that girl that died because she didn’t have a hundred bucks."

Once again, all the accused lies are proven wrong or she will admit the mistake.

When will Obama follow her lead ?

I will accept you apoligies, nah, you never admit you are dead wrong as usual.

I love how all of you take the hospital's side -- despite their refusal to actually offer any proof and their obvious attempts to cover their own asses -- over Senator Clinton. I, for one, will withhold judgement.

Also on the ABC News last night, they showed the video of the policeman telling Hillary the story that she failed to check out properly. He seemed to be credible, so it kills any notion that Hillary was lying or making the story up. She simply failed to check it out. Mistake on her part, but not such a big deal.

Meanwhile ABC News also showed Obama denying that he himself filled out the questionnaire, saying that he had never seen it, and it was filled out by his aide. Then they showed the questionnaire in question, and showed Obama's handwriting on it.

I highly doubt that any Obama supporters are going to vote for Hillary because of Obama's "misstatement" about the questionnaire. So don't expect masses of Hillary supporters to switch sides over her failing to check out the policeman's story.

Here is where this story may point to a huge flaw in Hillary's claim that she is the one that is best equipped to take that 3.00am red phone call and take the proper action.

How about double checking that what you are hearing is actually true, before you run off and stir up the nation and perhaps rush to war, Hillary!

If she is so gullible that she just accepts everything that anyone tells her, then she sure as hell has not passed The Commander in Chief threshold that she requires others to do.

Keep in mind, Hillary is the one that claimed that George W. Bush fooled her into voting for the Iraq War. Her defense is: "I was duped by a dope". Looks like she may have to to recycle that excuse, and use it to explain her latest Fairy Tale.

gotalife - If you are going to willfully insist this has no bearing on anything - then quit talking about it.

If something like this doesn't matter, then what has been all the bullshit about a retired UCC minister? I mean come on - this is either indicative of something about the candidate and her people, or nothing is.

Which is it, gotalife? You keep spinning in two directions at once and you make me rather queasy.

. God knows you can't swing a dead cat in this country without hitting a health care horror story.

Word up!

Where do campaigns find these people? It usually seems to be bullshit whenever they trot out some individual's story and I look around and wonder - why them? There are dozens, hundreds, thousands of people with totally credible stories.

I dunno - I just hate her campaign staff.

People are calling this "Hillary's Song". Got to love that:

O I do I do - thanks for the link.

. So far he is not winning among traditional Democrats. he's doing well because of republicans and young people who are not reliable in a GE and because if independents who actually like McCain.

O here we go again - electability.

that's bullshit. The thing about Obama is that he will bring out all kinds of voters who don't vote that often if ever - progressives, tens of thousands of young voters, lots of voters in the South who gave up voting decades ago, PLUS the rest of us latte sipping white liberals who are so stricken with liberal guilt we're often told that's why we're voting for him.

No one on this planet knows who is more electable until someone wins the goddamn election. Otherwise it is speculation and generally subjective and always utter bullshit..

We know you hate the Clintons.

I'm giving you a pass this one time, gotalife, but you listen to me - if there is one thing that makes me beyond furious, it is when someone puts words in my mouth.

If you don't know who Ry Cooder is, find out and get a copy of his song "That's the Way the Girls are from Texas" and pay close attention to the lyrics.

I said I hate her staff.

I have never said I hate either one of the Clintons. I have said I used to love Bill and respect her and they've managed to fuck that up themselves during this campaign.

this is the only warning you're going to get - Do not put words in my mouth.