Latest Attempt by Obama’s Media Groupies and His Supporters to Smear Hillary Clinton Falls Flat

In today’s NY Times, Paul Krugman sets the record straight on the latest attempt by Obama's media groupies and his supporters to smear Hillary Clinton. Krugman’s op-ed piece is titled Healthcare Horrors, and he details how the Washington Post inappropriately identifies Trina Bachtel, the victim in a tragic anecdote that Hillary Clinton has woven into her campaign speeches on the trail.

Predictably, Obama supporters gleefully seized the opportunity to brand Hillary Clinton a liar.

But Krugman notes, “In fact, Mrs. Clinton was accurately repeating the story as it was told to her — and it turns out that while some of the details were slightly off, the essentials of her story were correct. After all the fuss, The Washington Post eventually conceded that “Bachtel’s medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence” of Mrs. Clinton’s account.”

Krugman continues:

“And even more important, Mrs. Clinton was making a valid point about the state of health care in this country.

“In other words, this was a disgraceful episode. It was particularly sad to see a number of Obama supporters (though not the Obama campaign itself) join enthusiastically in the catcalls against Mrs. Clinton’s good-faith effort to put a human face on the cruelty and injustice of the American health care system.”

Krugman concludes by reminding overly zealous Obamaphiles, whose candidate has consistently offered himself as the harbinger of the “new politics,” about what being progressive really means:

“Look, I know that many progressives have their hearts set on seeing Barack Obama get the Democratic nomination. But politics is supposed to be about more than cheering your team and jeering the other side. It’s supposed to be about changing the country for the better.

“And if being a progressive means anything, it means believing that we need universal health care, so that terrible stories like those of Monique White, Trina Bachtel and the thousands of other Americans who die each year from lack of insurance become a thing of the past.”