A Clinton smear. Even if you don't like her, it is worth applying skepticism.

Almost hate coming back to this stuff. I almost feel like an apologist for Clinton. Again, have issues with her and her stands, statements, and votes. But I would like to see her go down, if she does, for real reasons. No invent Internet/Love Story crap. No Swift Boat/Wind surfing bullshit.

Well, surprise Novak did a bit of sloppy work in his journalistic past time.

The Horse's Mouth:

In his column today, Robert Novak builds not just an entire column, but a whole theory about Hillary's candidacy right now, on a falsehood that's so transparent that you can't even believe he attempted it. His basic take: We know that Camp Hillary is in a panic about Barack Obama because in her speech in Alabama recently she lauded Martin Luther King even though she was a self-confessed "Goldwater girl" in the early sixties.

...

Novak asserts that Hillary's speech claimed an "attachment" to King in the sixties -- but if you look at the actual speech, you'll see that she never claimed she had any attachment to King at the time. Novak simply invented this out of thin air, because it was the only way he could imply a contradiction here.

Now on to the even more ridiculous falsehood. Novak suggests that Hillary's "handlers" are so spooked by Obama that they were "tempted to imply the existence long ago of a teenager in Chicago's suburbs who never really existed." But guess what? Hillary herself told the story of the very same teenager -- way back in 2003!

In her speech, Hillary said: "As a young girl, I had the great privilege of hearing Dr. King speak in Chicago. The year was 1963. My youth minister from our church took a few of us down on a cold January night to hear someone that we had read about, we had watched on television, we had seen with our own eyes from a distance, this phenomenon known as Dr. King."

Now take a look at this passage from her 2003 autobiography, which was flagged by Media Matters in another context. Hillary wrote about the same episode, saying that though she was a Goldwater girl, a liberal Methodist minister named Don Jones invited Hillary to hear King. From page 23 of the book: "I had only vaguely heard of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King...So, when Don announced one week that he would take us to hear Dr. King speak at Orchestra Hall, I was excited."

Got that? Novak suggests that Hillary's "handlers" were so spooked by Obama that they created a "teenager in Chicago's suburbs who never really existed." But Hillary herself wrote about the very same episode -- telling the very same story Novak says was dreamed up by Hillary's current handlers -- in a book that was published before Obama was even elected to the United States Senate!

Look, I'm not saying Hillary and her advisers aren't in a panic about Obama. They very well may be. But this anecdote doesn't show this at all. It's pure fiction, nothing more. Makin' it up.

Like most of the other minor tempest, this one will pass and be forgotten. But it is of great value to be aware of this look at it, be aware of it, and when the main game starts have your eyes and ears peeled and skeptical of claims. Because, the POLITICIAN Hillary Clinton is a a popular image. Just as it was with Al Gore. So when people claimed Gore was making wild claim, it was just swallowed and not reviewed. And when these claims come out about her, they will again. And whoever is the democrat candidate, will most likely be tarred likewise.

Obama - Young and overeager to win
Edwards - Lawyerly
etc.

So be aware, conscious, and vocal.