Letters to the Editor
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Another otherwise good article marred by the Bosnia reference
I totally agree that there were "Clinton rules" and that Obama is suddenly finding himself subject to them. You might call them the "ohmigod, a Democrat might be elected President/might be an effective President" rules.
But, just like the old adage, "just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean I'm not being followed", just because there are Clinton rules doesn't mean Hillary should get a pass on her Bosnia lie. The boast was entirely germane to her campaign theme about experience. It was used in conjunction with her alleged anecdote from the White House about sending the First Lady where it was too dangerous to send the President. And it was just dead wrong.
But it is absolutely the case that McCain deserves exactly as much scrutiny about his mistakes about, for instance, Iranian aid to al-Qaeda, given that he too is running on his alleged experience. The serious question is whether he can keep the facts straight if he was President. No one wants to talk about that, either, though we lived through eight years of Reagan and over seven of Bush (and a couple of years of a post-stroke Woodrow Wilson, but in a far different world) when no one had real confidence they could do so.