You know a candidate is having problems when he starts complaining about the process.

“So the problem that we have in our politics, which is fairly typical, is that you take one person’s statement, if it’s not properly phrased, and you just beat it to death,” Obama said. “And I understand that. That’s politics. And I expect to have to go through this process.”

But Obama grew so irritated with the process Wednesday night that he even managed to mangle things a little further.

Regarding Rev. Wright, Obama said: “And, you know, the notion that somehow that the American people are going to be distracted once again by comments not made by me, but somebody who is associated with me that I have disowned, I think doesn’t give the American people enough credit.”

Not that Clinton got off scot-free. She had to answer to making up that story about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire.

“On a couple of occasions in the last weeks, I just said some things that weren’t in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book,” she said.

She went on: “I’m very sorry that I said it. And I have said that, you know, it just didn’t jibe with what I had written about and knew to be the truth.”

When most people say things that they know are not the truth, this is called a lie. In politics it is called “misspeaking,” which is a whole different thing.