Spin Cycle

The last time Sen. Clinton put up a 3 am ad, a reporter from Slate asked on a conference call when she had ever handled a national security crisis. After an embarassing silence, the best her advisors could come up with was that she had a lot of foreign travel, and a lot of endorsements from generals, and a lifetime of experience.

Today, on a conference call to discuss her new 3-am-phone-call-on-the-economy ad, the same reporter asked when she ever handled an economic crisis. No embarassing silence, but the answers weren't much better. Spokesman Howard Wolfson:

"There is not a single moment that tests you for being president like being president....What Sen. Clinton draws upon...is a lifetime of experience both in and out of the White House, a rich and deep understanding of complex problems, the complex problems that the economy faces today, and as a Senator from New York an understanding of markets..."

As the call went on, he and pollster Mark Penn threw out a few more ideas.

Penn: "Extensive work in economic development, bringing together new markets, helping to save and create jobs in her tenure." Wolfson cited her efforts "to insure that New York got resources after Sept. 11" and "making sure that New York had what it needed to get back on its feet.”

The problem: She actually hasn't fulfilled a campaign promise from 2000 to create hundreds of thousands of jobs upstate. And, most people don't think of getting money from Congress as quite the same as handling an economic crisis.....