As Far As I Know

There's been a lot of criticism over Clinton's 60 Minutes interview and her answer on the "Obama-is-a-Muslim" rumor. She gave a perfectly good answer... except for the ending.

STEVE KROFT: You don't believe that Senator Obama's a Muslim?

HILLARY CLINTON: Of course not. I mean that's, you know, that, there is no basis for that. You know, I take him on the basis of what he says, and, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.

KROFT: You said you take Sen. Obama at his word that he's not a Muslim...

CLINTON: Right, right..

KROFT: …you don't believe that he's a Muslim.

CLINTON: No! No! Why would I? There's nothing to base that on. As far as I know.

When I first heard what she had said (I didn't watch the interview) I thought, "Oh, great! Is she looking for a job on the McCain campaign after Obama wins the nomination?" But after watching the interview, the comment reads much worse than the interview.

But it's a painstaking process to find a video other than on the CBS website to see the full Clinton comment. As Jake Tapper notes:

To be fair, Clinton went on to say that having "been the target of so many ridiculous rumors... I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time."

But Tapper also makes a valid point. What if the shoe was on the other foot?

Let's try just one of any number of ridiculous anti-Clinton smears.

HYPOTHETICAL STEVE KROFT: You don't believe that Senator Clinton killed Vince Foster?

HYPOTHETICAL BARACK OBAMA: Of course not. I mean that's, you know, that, there is no basis for that. You know, I take her on the basis of what she says, and, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.

HYPOTHETICAL KROFT: You said you take Sen. Clinton at her word that she didn't kill Vince Foster...

HYPOTHETICAL OBAMA: Right, right..

HYPOTHETICAL KROFT: …you don't believe that she killed Vince Foster.

HYPOTHETICAL OBAMA: No! No! Why would I? There's nothing to base that on. As far as I know.

Food for thought, isn't it? Yes, Clinton probably should have kept the "As far as I know" comment to herself. But these politicians are so scutinized by what they they say, it was probably an automatic thing for her, not wanting to get caught in a game of "gotcha" in so many other instances of reporters pressing a question.

Yes I'm making an excuse for her, I'm not a Hillary fan and I am an Obama supporter. The comment is much ado about nothing, although hypersensitive people won't take it as such. The one thing she should have said, as Obama touched on in his portion of the interview should have gone something like this:

"This is a prejudice attack that we shouldn't stand for as a nation. Barack Obama is not a Muslim. But would it make a difference if he was? Would you be asking me the same question if he were Jewish? Or Greek Orthodox? Or Hindu? This rumor is not only an insult to Barack, but an insult to all Muslims everywhere who are being stereotyped and perpetrated as terrorists just because their religion is the same as that of opportunistic extremists. Would we be targeting all Roman Catholics because of Timothy McVeigh?"

But she didn't say that.

As far as those intrepid "journalists" out there, why don't you ask John McCain if he'll reject and denounce religious extremist John Hagee's endorsement and if not, does that mean that McCain believes the Catholic Church is a "great whore" or if he believes "that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that" instead of having a barbeque with a man you're supposed to be reporting about objectively?