As part of her argument that she has the best experience and instincts to deal with a sudden crisis as president, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton recently offered a vivid description of having to run across a tarmac to avoid sniper fire after landing in Bosnia as first lady in 1996.
Yet on Monday, Mrs. Clinton admitted that she “misspoke” about the episode — a concession that came after CBS News showed footage of her walking calmly across the tarmac with her daughter, Chelsea, and being greeted by dignitaries and a child.
The backpedaling was a rare instance of Mrs. Clinton’s acknowledging an error, and she did so on a sensitive issue: She has cited her “strength and experience” since the start of the presidential race, framing her 80 trips abroad as first lady as preparation for dealing with foreign affairs as president. That argument was behind her campaign’s “red phone” commercial, which cast her as best able to handle a crisis.
Mrs. Clinton corrected herself at a meeting with the Philadelphia Daily News editorial board; she did not explain why she had misspoken, but only admitted it and then offered a less dramatic description.
Mrs. Clinton said she had been told “that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire,” not that actual shots were being fired.
“So I misspoke,” she said.
Earlier Monday, Clinton advisers corrected the Bosnia anecdote, saying they did not want it to harm her credibility. One Clinton foreign policy adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity in exchange for being candid about her mistake, said that Mrs. Clinton had been “too loose” with her words and that she risked looking as if “she was trying to pump up a somewhat risky situation into a very dangerous one.”
In her most recent account, offered last week, Mrs. Clinton described an action-packed arrival in the Balkans.
“I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia,” she said, in remarks that aides described Monday as not being part of her prepared speech. “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”... [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Here is the video of both statements. Judge for yourselves:
Frankly, I do not find her explanation credible and thing that Clinton has severely damaged her credibility. This is her worst gaffe to date.
16 opinions:
The more I see of the two candidates, the more I swing to Obama. Course whatever Dem candidate is ultimately chosen I will vote for. I think we need new blood, not the same old Clintons.
Given how everything the Clintons did or said was ruthlessly followed by the media, she certainly should have known better. Landing in Bosnia back then isn't like hiding something behind the scenes.
Oops, what a mistake to make.
Pity...
If at all, she could have said that her claim to being 'the most experienced of the three candidates' is backed by the fact that she tactically and strategically helped Bill Clinton get elected, or that it is borne of her having been close to the president at all levels in her role as de facto advisor to her husband (rightly or wrongly) since no one can argue the latter).
After all, pretty difficult to claim as being truly experienced for the presidency when one has not been president.
Ouch..How embarrassing for her..
Hillary, imho, is going to end up tearing the party to shreds because of her feelings of entitlement. I have never accepted her years as First Lady as qaulifications for Commander-in-Chief. She has also lied about having a role in brokering peace in Northern Island. An Irish official, among others, has verified she had no role beyond seating women for lunch. Her claim to being "qualified" is, as Obama states, nothing more than a self-assertion.
The papers released from the National Archives have also already shown that she did a little more lobbying for Nafta than she previously admitted.
Finally, she never had national security clearance as First Lady.
I am beginning to see all of her statements as misleading. Anyone with a smattering of knowledge knows that even at 3 in the morning, every president has access to the joint chiefs and cabinet members within 60 seconds. No president is going to make a snap decision in a crucial situation regardless of what time of day it is. The idea that a president has to make a decision of supreme importance by himself at *any* time of day is ludicrous.
All of this--demeanor and misstatements--simply serves to reinforce why she had such high negative numbers to begin with
Like I said in my blog today, she didn't misspeak--- she lied. Why she thought nobody would catch it is beyond me.
"Misspoke" is a huge understatement. It is another example of Hillary's tendency to exaggerate and outright lie about her experience. There is no way she "misspoke" when she said they ran with their heads down. You either did or didn't do this - and she didn't. And it is not something you'd have a hazy recollection of if you did.
Anyone who has ever sat at the bar in a VFW hall knows this type of memory lapse is not limited to politicians.:)
She didn't misspeak. She got caught lying. Her only error was being so stupid. How can you forget something like that, come on! It takes a friggen Politician to lie with a straight face and just smile without missing a beat.
Gaffe
I posted about this same "gaffe". It amazes me in this day and age these politicians don't think everything they say can be checked. I found a post on another site that sort of defended her by saying it was just like telling the story of "the one that got away", every time you tell the story the fish is bigger.
All that matters, of course, is the media's devoting ten times the coverage to Hillery's little "war story" lie, than to McCain's huge lie about al-Qaeda training in bomb, bomb Iran.
Why did she do it?
I suspect she got some rather bad advice, or actually did misspeak. Something this blatantly stupid isn't what we'd expect from Hill.
As will I, MB.
Randal, she certainly should have.
It had to be most embarrassing, MD, Anjo, and Ivan.
HB, I think that's an excellent point. When Hillary thought she would be running virtually unopposed, back in the beginning, she and her campaign, never thought she would actually have to back up her experience claims.
Billy, your point on Northern Ireland is well made.
BigYF, Maui and Jim, I agree. It was a lie. That's why I said that I didn't find the explanation that she 'misspoke' credible.
TUA, that's certainly correct, but the expectations of a candidate in a public speech are different from those of a bunch of vets, three sheets to the wind from hoisting a few, telling tall tales.
Parson, that may be, but I don't consider that a justification.
Dave, you know the media is twisted to the right.
Josie, I can only speculate as to why, because I'm not inside her head, but my best guess is that she is desperate. Since some of her records came available, they have revealed that her experience overall is not what she has claimed it to be, and she is well behind and hanging on by a thread. I think she tried to portray herself as heroic and got caught.
JR, I would think she took bad advice. I just can't buy that a tall tale so divorced from the truth could have been accidental.
Post a Comment