Sometimes your opponents are looking for blood, the media is looking for a story, and you will be misquoted to make a point.
There has been a big fuss in the US about whether or not Barbara Boxer should have suggested that Condi Rice had no moral authority to order troops into battle, because she didn’t have children of her own, and didn’t understand the loss of American families.
It’s been a huge story, has made Dr. Rice seem like an innocent, hard-working Secretary of State under attack from some lefty, touchy-feely liberal.
Even if she didn’t actually say what many people, on either side of the debate think she did.
In this era of 24 news and instant reaction, counter-claim and finessing of positions, a story can be having an impact even before the facts are clear and understood. How ever will historians make sense of it all?