The power of a good joke

It didn't even occur to me, but probably the single best way for Hillary to control the damage from her recent confabulations is for her to constantly joke that she is being fired at by snipers. On Leno, she did just that:

“I was worried I wasn’t going to make it,” she said as she walked onto the set (to the theme from “Rocky”). “I was pinned down by sniper fire at the Burbank airport.”

Now I think that's actually alright--it's pretty funny. And it really makes everyone who is harping on the whole thing look kind of frivolously over-serious.

I think the sort of prototypical instance of a saving joke in politics is when, in 1984, Reagan dispelled worries about his age with the following riposte against Walter Mondale in a debate:

"I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."

It makes you wonder if there is, in theory, a joke good enough to dissipate any scandal, no matter how bad. Like, if Nixon could have gotten out of Watergate if he had just had a good enough quip. "Good evening America. I'd have brought Checkers out for this, but he resigned earlier today." Hmm.