Armchair Psych Session: WHY DOES HILLARY EMBELLISH??

[polichick]

Hillary Clinton is a bright, talented woman with an impressive resume ~ she doesn't need to embellish the truth with stump stories that don't add up. And yet, over and over again, she chooses to do just that ~ even adding theatrical touches like hand gestures and a choked-up voice.

Why do you think she sabotages herself like this??

[JeffR]

1. True, but still...

:popcorn:

[tekisui]

2. I have been trying to figure that one out as well.

The truth would have sufficed in every instance. Insecurity? Following poor advice? Trying to hard? I don't know.

[hisownpetard]

17. I think it shows a basic lack of respect for the intelligence of her audience.

[MonkeyFunk]

3. Same reason Al Gore and John Kerry

were big fucking liars: because their political enemies spin everything beyond all recognition.

[pompano]

18. She spun

...Tuzla. Nobody spun Tuzla for her. That was a whopper created within the theater of her own mind.

Neither McCain or Obama ran around and confabulated all the bullet dodging, corkscrewing, sitting on flack jackets, running for cover, ridiculous tall tales that she repeated 4 different times. They hadn't even mentioned it much less spun it? She told this ridiculous whopper to look like a hands-on ex-First Lady that was battle hardened and her bravery under fire could only be trumpted by McCain.

A must do for her as the polls and voting were showing everyday that she didn't represent a change in Washington, she was part of Washington Americans wanted to change...and still does.

[pompano]

19. and i forgot...

her confabulation didn't fly with anybody.

and junk and stuff!

[karynnj]

32. Sorry there - HRC did make things up

There is NOTHING I can't think of what Kerry overstated - he actually was correctly described by Biden as one of the people who often did not have their name on everything they did and that he was a classy guy. Since the election, I know many many things that Kerry did that I never heard of in 2004. (It wasn't Vietnam - all he said was that he served his nation as a young man in Vietnam - a very modest statement given his medals. He spoke of the medals only once - before the firefights - simply listing them and saying the Navy awarded them.)

Including:
- Having written much of the international money laundering laws included in the Patriot Act - which he couldn't get support for in the Clinton years. They are the one thing that HAS been successful in the fight against non-state terrorists.
- Brokering the format that has allowed Cambodia to have tribunals for the Pol Pot war crimes.

And I was one of the people who knew a fair amount of what he did.

[anonymous171]

4. Pathological Liar.

Signs of a Pathological Liar:
*The stories seem too dramatic or unrealistic(Snipergate)
*The lies seem to serve no purpose except to impress people (I spoke out against the Iraq war before he did)
*The lies can easily be shown up (Previous claim about speaking out before Obama, Snipergate)

[polpilot]

10. Very typical sociopathic behavior. Nothing unusual at all. Classic.

[Madam Mossfern]

30. Funny, I suggested the same

to someone at work today. He was a bit shocked, but then when I explained, he reconsidered. Also, I think that Hillary really really does not believe that she is lying, another sign of a pathological liar.

[dchill]

37. George Costanza.

To Jerry: "Remember, it's not a lie - if you believe it."

[DJ13]

5. Working to hard to prove her experience that doesnt exist

:shrug:

[C_U_L8R]

6. Deep inside she must want to lose

and she is fulfilling that inner desire
brilliantly

[FrenchieCat]

7. I just think that she thinks that the Internet has yet to be invented......

Isn't she still miffed that Al Gore decided to distance himself from her philandering husband during run 2000?

I don't think she has a clue of how things work these days......instant fact check available via the Internet.

[Uncle Joe]

15. I actually have a different take on that.

I believe Bill Clinton distanced him self from Al Gore, not the other way around.

[FrenchieCat]

25. Nope.....Gore decidedly determined that Clinton was retroactive

since Bush was running on "restoring dignity to the White House".....it is also the reason that Al Gore chose Lieberman, one of Clinton's strongest critic on Bill's behavior, as his Vice President.

There was a lot written on this issue at the time.

[Uncle Joe]

26. I believe Clinton decided Gore wasn't worth the discipline required

to avoid the Clinton/Lewinsky Scandal, that was the first stab or distance if you prefer against Gore's upcoming election, Clinton didn't have to run again after 96, so he didn't care. This after knowing the Republicans and the corporate media had done nothing but wage a continuous witch hunt against him from day one.

I don't believe that in it self was fatal against Al Gore's chances but it didn't help in the moderate to conservative areas of the nation. Then after the affair, he looked the American People straight in the camera, wagged his finger and quite adamantly lied about it, had he kept his mouth shut or told the people the truth upfront, Al Gore would've been far better off. I believe this to be the second stab against Gore's upcoming election and this handed Bush the integrity issue on a silver platter. Regarding the issue of integrity, this trumped the earlier Bush the Lesser's proclamation of "read my lips no new taxes".


The third stab was at the 2000 convention it self, read the paragraph below and couple that with what seemed like a ten minute self aggrandizing walk down the hall way, just so the cameras could gaze at his face, when he could've used that precious national prime time air time to promote Al Gore for President from the lectern. I believe coming weeks after scandal and impeachment; when Al Gore stood by him, this was the equivalent of Bush the Least telling the terrorists to "bring it on" It was always about Bill and I believe this is a large part of the reason as to why we have Cheney/Bush in the White House today.

"During his all-night conversation with Ken Burns in June, Bill "spoke movingly of the Democratic National Convention that was coming," Burns recalled, "and how because he was on the backside of scandal and impeachment he had a more delicate role to play."

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/11/clinton200711

Regarding the meme of Al Gore distancing him self from Clinton, I believe to some extent that was true, I just don't believe it happened first. I also wonder after being stabbed in the back three times by your boss, who wouldn't want to put a little space in between?

[XemaSab]

29. She's like GHW at the grocery store in 1992 marvelling at the newfangled checkout scanners

:P

[dchill]

38. She probably thought ...

that she was the only one who was smart enough to know about it.

[Barack_America]

8. Insecurity?

:shrug:

Isn't that usually why people embellish?

[dansolo]

16. That is my guess

At least it is better than sociopathy

[JimGinPA]

9. She Was Told The Hospital "Story"...

It sounded authentic enough, but it should have been verified. The sniper story was just stupid and it will be the foundation for which even the tiniest embelishment will be piled on.

[IndyHatedByBothSides]

11. Experience is her forte...

...therefore one could not expect Obama to lie or embellish on the same magnitude of a more "experienced" candidate.

[sniffa]

12. She desperately needs to be liked

[crankychatter]

13. trauma, cellular family dysfunction, incest survivor, child of alcoholic

all or none

people that lie on impulse and unnecessarily have problems

but I don't play Monday morning quarterback in other people's lives

suffice it to say I keep them away from the crib

it brings heat to the neighborhood

[JayFredMuggs]

14. She feels very inadequate

Most people you meet in a bar who tell you they were a Green Beret, or a CIA agent, or a college football star, or a prom queen, most of them are "embellishing".

I try to find someone else to talk to ASAP. Or I realize I've been in the bar too long and just go home.

[phiddle]

20. Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

From Wikipedia:

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), is a personality disorder defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV-R), the diagnostic classification system used in the United States, as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy."

DSM Criteria
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement
6. is interpersonally exploitative
7. lacks empathy
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

[Yukari Yakumo]

23. I was thinking this instead...

Mythomania
(Redirected from Pathological liar)

From Wikipedia:

Mythomania is a condition involving compulsive lying by a person with no obvious motivation. The affected person might believe their lies to be truth, and may have to create elaborate myths to reconcile them with other facts. A pathological liar is someone who often embellishes his or her stories in a way that he or she believes will impress people. It may be that a pathological liar is different from a normal liar in that a pathological liar believes the lie he or she is telling to be true—at least in public—and is "playing" the role. He or she sometimes is seen to have a serious mental problem that needs to be rectified. It could also be that pathological liars know precisely what they are doing. "Pathological liar" is a synonym for symptoms. Even though pathological lying is not recognized as a clinical disorder, legal court cases often require that the plaintiff prove that the defendant is aware that he or she is lying. This proof is most important in cases of slander and/or liability. Pathological liars often actually convince themselves that they are telling the truth, which in turn can alter polygraph tests and other questioning. Some have observed that when caught in a lie, pathological liars tend to become hostile or try to disregard the fact they lied; often playing it off as a joke.

A compulsive liar will resort to telling lies, regardless of the situation. Again, everyone lies from time to time, but for a compulsive liar telling lies is routine - it becomes a habit and a way of life.

[TexasObserver]

24. That is Hillary to a T. Appears to have been written about her.

Ultimately, she knows she's an average talent, but she's always tried to play herself as much more than she is. If she were not Mrs. Clinton, we would have never heard of her, because she never would have distinguished herself.

On her best day, she's the corporate attorney from the film, Michael Clayton.

[AZBlue]

35. Wow...she's 9 out of 9.

That's scary!

[TexasObserver]

21. Because she's a mediocre mind and talent, always trying to compensate.

She's an average corporate attorney turned politician. If she had never been married to Bill, you'd have never heard of her. On her own, she's an underwhelming person, and she knows it. She's overcompensating in an attempt to sell herself as someone she isn't and has never been.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. Just because she is line to the throne of the Bush/Clinton dynasties

she cannot understand why she isn't winning and she has to ace it because her masters will want results!

[XemaSab]

31. As an aside:

your sigline is teh dank. :D

[hedgehog]

27. I think this guy has it right:

Like Blair, neither she nor Bill stand for anything – priding themselves in being tied to no "ideology". So a normal politician might set out with a set of principles, then lie as they compromise and betray them. But a Blair or Clinton is a politician with no purpose but their own standing, like celebrities who are nothing but celebrities. So they say whatever they feel will make them look best to the audience they're with, regardless of whether it's true, until they probably don't know themselves what's real and what's not.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/opinion/article3571700.ece


Thanks to BlueDogDemocratNH for spotting this article first!

[Bonobo]

28. She has the mistaken notion that it will serve her better than honesty.

[Bucky]

33. My guess: she's a politician. If the sniper story worked, she used it again.

All entertainers hone their routines over time. Politicians, Obama included, are entertainers as much as they're lawmakers. This is why it's necessary to swap out our leaders from time to time.

[loyalsister]

34. Politics and pressure

She's desperately trying to win a campaign and looking for any advantage she can find.

This was not what she counted on. What a let-down!
She was going to be the historical candidate. Then Obama comes along and she thought she could compete anyway.
But running against the narrative of Obama's biography has been a challenge far beyond her imagination. On top of that, he's running against the campaign status quo with which she is most comfortable and most familiar.

Then on the other side, she probably is getting mail from some elderly die hard feminists some of whom supported the suffragists, saying "I\my mother didn't even have the right to vote and here you are.... don't let them get you down. Keep in it til the end, etc. etc."

I truly feel for her. The pressure she is under must be extreme.

With no one to siphon votes, and falling farther and farther behind she had to find a new strategy if she was going to make it to the convention. So, she started to rewrite her own story and failed.

I think that false memories may have played a role in the Bosnia debacle. It would have been very easy for some consultant to prompt her into that "memory." She has probably heard about a lot of violent landings in Iraq. I have no doubt what is going on weighs heavily on her mind. When people begin to internalize details similar to the event, they have a good chance of making a false memory.

http://www.acfnewsource.org/science/false_memories.html

I am willing to go easy on her here. Her campaign staff act like they want her to lose by the decisions they are making- note: Lorraine hotel. Apparently her judgement to override is off. This has to be so very difficult for her to keep trying to hold her campaign together. I hope that my fellow Obama supporters will recognize that analysis is one thing, but there is no reason to be ugly.

[PoliticalAmazon]

36. I think the DSM-IV (Revised) calls it "Severe integrity deficiency, acute and chronic, NOS." n/t