Grasping at straws? She’s caught. She said there were snipers. Everyone else around her says that there wasn’t. She said it was too dangerous to hold a greeting ceremony. There is youtube video of the greeting ceremony. Hillary Clinton’s own campaign has acknowledged that there was no sniper fire and there was a greeting ceremony. She’s had to go back and admit her mistake. The only person not admitting their mistake is you. Cites have been provided on everything.
I get it. You don’t like Obama and his supporters. That’s perfectly fine, but to sit here and accuse us of grasping at straws when the facts are sitting right in front of you is ridiculous. Go back. Read the cites, and admit that you are wrong.
I can see McCain defending his confusing the terror groups as a misspeak. Its a one time fumble and quickly admitted when pointed out. Telling a story of a your being sent where it was too dangerous for the President to go on an important diplomatic mission and running for cover from sniper fire, of how a greeting ceremony never occurred, and repeating and defending your version of events on another occasion when someone else who was there disputes it, when the truth is that it was not dangerous, that the President had already been there before you, that you had no important diplomatic mission only goodwill appointments, that there was no sniper fire and not even any report of snipers in the hills, that there was no run for cover and instead was a calm deplaning with a meet and greet with a cute Bosnian child reading you a poem … that’s a “misspeak” only in an Orwellian world.
(I would be curious if there some other incident somewhere anytime that she was under sniper fire that may have inspired this story. I suspect not. As has been pointed out, a first lady under fire would have been news. Give her credit for creative writing at least. And chutzpah at telling and defending such a baldfaced one with such aplomb.)
That’s a “misspeak” more blatant than Bush’s claim of WMDs in Iraq and we have seen what politicians misspeaking results in.
But that’s okay. She “misspeaks” all the time. She misspeaks when she claims that she was against NAFTA from the start when the record shows her running meetings on how to promote it. She misspeaks pretty much about anything regarding her so-called experience. We can look forward to many more such misspeaks I am sure.
Even if it’s just an embellished fish story (and that does seem to be a reasonable explanation for how it got in her head) she screwed up by using her fish story as evidence of her experience in a presidential campaign. Why didn’t someone in the campaign stop her once the thing got fact-checked? Are they too scared to approach her, or are they really just tired and ready to see this end?
Agreed. What makes this newsworthy is that the Bosnia story was given as an explicit example of her self-described Commander In Chief qualifications. So for those who think it should just be dismissed with a hand wave are actually dismissing her CIC credentials as well.
I don’t take issue with the NAFTA thing, though. So, she stood by her husband when he proposed the policy - to me, it seems plausible that she personally could not have been a fan. Just like when Obama didn’t want to slam John Kerry during his run in '04, and softened up his anti war stance. Context should count for something in both of these situations.
He was fired on. Big whoop. You think that would make him reluctant to send troops to war except as a last resort. Instead, he signed off on Bush’s war of choice. Now he can’t even keep straight who’s fighting who over there. If he has a senior moment on the campaign trail, why should we think he’d make the right decision at 3 am?
Correct. He actually continued to make the same statement about Iran training and supporting Al Qaeda even after Joe “I’m only a Democrat in my own mind” Lieberman played prompter and stage-whispered the truth in his ear.
It’s not a big deal! Stop attacking the woman! It’s a “minor blip”!
*"Will Bunch, who writes the Attytood blog for the Daily News, asked about the Bosnia brouhaha and Clinton said, in part:
Now let me tell you what I can remember, OK – because what I was told was that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire. So I misspoke – I didn’t say that in my book or other times but if I said something that made it seem as though there was actual fire – that’s not what I was told. …
I think that, a minor blip, you know, if I said something that, you know, I say a lot of things – millions of words a day – so if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement."*
So there it is. It’s a minor blip. Y’all are trying to blow up a minor blip into a big flap. She says millions of words a day. Or if not millions, at least thousands. Don’t start fussing about that now. It’s just a MINOR BLIP, fer crying out loud. It’s already disappeared!
She’s visited 80 countries ya know, and probably there were snipers somewhere in some of them.
Hey, I was just speaking of how it will be seen by lots and lots of people, whether that perception is correct or not. And if you don’t think people will look at this contretemps and remember that John McCain was shot at, you’re kidding yourself.
And if being shot at isn’t sufficient qualification for the presidency (which I agree that it isn’t - it certainly wasn’t for John Kerry) why should Hillary Clinton have to lie about it? It makes no sense at all.
I know you were being sarcastic, but I do have to say something. In the Navy I pulled imminent danger pay a few times because I visited countries that weren’t exactly stable. This in part qualifies me for the VFW, and I take advantage of this.
I am not, though, a combat veteran, and I have taken great pains to say that many times on these boards. I have never had genuine combat veterans run down my service in any way - but if I had embellished my record, I wouldn’t have much sympathy anywhere.
Hillary Clinton is a civilian, and perhaps shouldn’t be judged strictly along these lines - but she should be held to an honest account of her actions.
It reminds me of Gerry Ford and the Poland thing. If s/he had immediately said, “Sorry, of course I misspoke” and moved on, as McCain did with his Iran/al-Quada gaffe, it would have been no big deal. Sure, assholes are going to harp on it, but they will do that no matter what you say.
But the stupid thing is to stick to it. Ford did that, and Carter kept hammering on it for a week, and it managed to pull off a narrow win for Carter (God help us). Hilary should have immediately withdrawn the statement, and then minimized its importance.
Say something like, "look, I made a mistake. OK? I thought Sen. Obama’s supporters would join him in trying to do politics in a new way. I’m not attacking Sen. Obama for not knowing that al-Queda has already established a base in Iraq (something that happened years ago). I understand that he just made a mistake. Same thing with Sen. McCain’s mistake about Iran backing al-Queda. He obviously meant that Iran was backing other terrorists in Iran. And he has said so.
I’m human. I make mistakes. I believe the important thing is to focus on the real issues of the campaign. I urge, and look forward, to Sen. Obama and his supporters in joining me in blah blah blah great nation blah blah blah bright future for America’s children blah blah blah apple pie blah blah blah. And, in conclusion, blah."
Except that Clinton’s “misstatement” was made for the purpose of enhancing her reputation, and follows a pattern of exaggerating her experience, i.e. “helping bring peace to Northern Ireland” by visiting a pub for a photo op.
These may be just Minor Blips, but damn…the seismograph sure is jumping.
And Shame On You, Mr. Moto, for taking advantage of the VFW.
Sadly, politicians these days don’t seem capable in most cases of admitting error. Perhaps this stems from a fear that the admission of error will be used against them somehow. Of course, boldly forging ahead with the mistake isn’t any better, but I’d say that the general rule for humans is to be stubborn about such things (this Board abounds with such examples daily). :smack:
Wait, what – they’re drafting underage youngsters now? And not even paying them a decent signing bonus? And how’d the draft get reinstated anyhow? I thought it was political suicide to even
Sure Hillary told a whopper to try and enhance her relatively flimsy foreign policy credentials, but, but…
Obama’s pastor made a fiery and angry sermon with some anti-American overtones that Obama wasn’t present for and comletely denounced, nonetheless, yet it was really bad and he still needs to answer questions about it!!!1!1!!
A couple of months ago, I supported Hillary to the point that I’d get into arguments with my Obama-supporting hubby. Not shouting matches, mind you, but I was a strong supporter, though I would have been delighted with either candidate. I just liked her more. By super tuesday, I was still conflicted, but had changed my mind about her and voted for Obama. However, I still would have been fine with either candidate. But over the last few weeks, she has lost her lustre completely, and now I can’t stand her.
While watching this video, and chuckling a bit, I realized I’ve come to the point I’m feeling actual schadenfreude about her campaign falling apart, and that’s really sad.
