Credit where due?

Hot Air and Drudge are linking to a Bill Clinton altercation with some 9/11 twoofers in Minneapolis yesterday. Here it is. Credit where due? Maybe, but some discussion first.

The Clintons have a long history of benefiting from the headlines. Bill's political acumen is second to none, so he usually doesn't stumble into such things. One could easily believe his candor was merely an ingenious attempt to gain easy points with moderates (or even some fence-sitting righties) by being the first politico to verbally smack down these disruptive kooks. And anything that benefits him benefits Hillary--he's basically on the ticket with her.

Then there's the Ron Paul angle. His base can't be too happy with this since at last check there were no You Tube claims of victory. Clinton must know that many Paul followers are also followers of Alex Jones, a guy who's been known to run around the streets with a bullhorn shouting insurrection-like drool. Since everyone seems to agree a viable third party candidate most helps the Hill-Bill express what better way to keep Paul's love machine humming than to tick them off?

But to make such calculations on the spur of the moment is perhaps a stretch even for Slick. Assuming he didn't know the ambush was coming his reaction seemed genuine. We should not forget he was privy to those super top drawer intelligence briefs about threats from AQ, Saddam, Ayatollahs, etc, so he knows a little. He knows a lot.

That's why I'm choosing to believe his defense of the narrative was an impromptu home run, borne out of knowledge and patriotism. Credit where due, indeed. Here's hoping he starts a trend.