What gets me is that not only did she tell this story multiple times and that it is easily misproven, but that she had such “vivid” memories of what happened…running to the cars, the greeting ceremony cancelled, etc.
I’m sorry, but if you’re getting shot at, I’m sure you’re going to remember the circumstances. So, either she’s flat out lying, or her memory isn’t what it used to be. Either one does not bode well for someone running for POTUS.
What’s this about “misspoke”, anyway? Isn’t that the oral equivalent of a typo? During the rythm of speech, one of the words your brain grabs in 1/10 of a second is the wrong one? Swapping “Obama” with “Osama” would be a good example (sadly enough), or “Iraq” and “Iran”. McCain said a few weeks ago that he was a “liberal”, which he immediately fixed and laughed about. You have a number of related concepts and their terms rolling around in your head when you’re talking, a certain fraction are going to get miscued.
Calling what she did “misspeaking” would be like a newspaper printing that “Hillary was discovered in the intimate company of several preteen boys” and then claiming it was a typo.
Optimistically, she was for some reason confused and made a mistake. Pessimistically, she tried to pull a fast one and got caught (and there’s an excellent article about this by Carl Bernstein on the CNN web site today).
And I’m saying “mistake” here according to its old meaning, as in “I thought the truck would fit under the bridge, but I guess I made a mistake”. Not in its new meaning, as in “I stole the money from the orphanage and got caught, and I think it is time to move forward and not dwell on past mistakes”.
Apparently, she has ‘mispoken’ about ‘mispeaking’. The reason she has given for ‘mispeaking’ is, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that she had been ‘sleep-deprived’. She must need an awful lot of sleep, or she was partying mighty hard because the day before she had no engagements, and she spent the night at home in Embassy Row.
And that’s not all. She says that it’s the first time she has ‘mispoken’ about Bosnia. No, Hillary, it’s not: on February 29, you said that the ceremony had to be moved indoors because of the sniper fire, and on December 29, you said that you ‘landed in one of those corkscrew landings and ran out because there might be sniper fire’.
Tut tut. Most people wait until they’re actually President before they make things up.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/25/wuspols225.xml
Who are you gonna vote for?
I say some one strong and tough like Patton! Walking upright in a hail of gunfire, knowing that just being right is all the protection one needs.
All the while speaking 35 words per second.
I mean what kind of credentials are you looking for?
OK, in Hillary’s defense, she did not say they had to run under sniper fire. Keith Olbermann tried again tonight to crucify Billary with that “misspoken” description, and he made the mistake of running tape of what she actually claimed on the stump. She said they were TOLD the ceremony had been changed to an indoor hangar because of sniper fire. She never said, during that speech, that she was actually under sniper fire. She said the arrangements had been changed. That’s what she remembered, that as she approached touchdown in Bosnia, she received word that greeting arrangements had been changed because of the DANGER OF sniper fire (my emphasis.) Once they arrived, obviously, the DANGER had passed, and the little girl greeted her and Chelsea, etc.
Look, I don’t mind the communal Hillary Pillory here, but if you’re gonna’ do it, at least get the facts right.
Oh… I don’t know… How about someone who is NOT a jerk! Someone who doesn’t lie and is honest about their past. Someone who doesn’t talk a lot of rhetoric bull crap and actually has some some good plans for the future of our country.
That’s the credentials I’m looking for. Too bad that nobody running in this year’s election has them.
Exactly. McCain recently had to correct himself after he said that Al Qaeda was training Shiite insurgents in Iraq. He meant to say Iran was training them (Al Qaeda trains the Sunni insurgents, not the Shiites), and he corrected himself after Lieberman said something. That was misspeaking.
I’m with you. But I drum and am a little hard of hearing. I heard, “I just talk shit.”
Makes me wanna vote for her!
Twelve years ago? It is very easy to generate a false memory in 12 years. Let us say they were warned about snipers (likely) and the Secret Service/Marines told them to keep their heads down if a shot was fired (again, likely) . That’d be scary,and after 12 years it is very easy to turn that into “there was sniper fire and we had to lkeep our heads down”.
In any case, Sunrazor seems to have the facts: “She said they were TOLD the ceremony had been changed to an indoor hangar because of sniper fire. She never said, during that speech, that she was actually under sniper fire. She said the arrangements had been changed. That’s what she remembered, that as she approached touchdown in Bosnia, she received word that greeting arrangements had been changed because of the DANGER OF sniper fire (my emphasis.)”
In the intestest of “getting the facts right,” her comments at George Washington U on March 17 (quoted in Wikipedia Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign - Wikipedia):
“I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia… 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”
In her defense, other than the landing under sniper fire, the ceremony being cancelled and the running with heads down to vehicles parts, her recall was pretty accurate.
Other than that, though…
This video, (not a Rick Roll), filed by a CBS reporter who was on the `96 trip with Clinton, does a pretty good job of illustrating her faulty memory.
I can’t summon any outrage, but it’s pretty amusing.
Having watched the CBS clip, then I have to agree that it wasn’t just a slip of the tongue.
Good god folks, if you’re going to lie about something, do it about something which wasn’t taped by a major network.
Maybe they think we’re so dumb that we require proof of physical courage in our leaders. But then, that’s an indicator of their imbecility. Almost makes me appreciate Dick Cheney’s candor about his “other priorities.”
>OK, in Hillary’s defense, she did not say they had to run under sniper fire.
>She said they were TOLD the ceremony had been changed to an indoor hangar because of sniper fire.
>She never said, during that speech, that she was actually under sniper fire.
>Look, I don’t mind the communal Hillary Pillory here, but if you’re gonna’ do it, at least get the facts right.
Sunrazor, here is a quote from the Clinton speech I’m referring to (there were several), as quoted in The Atlantic:
“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.”
We were really hoping this would die on its own, but since we’re seeing more and more of these links, we’re putting the kibosh on 'em.
I think the best takedown of Clinton’s story came from Sinbad, who was also there. Just the fact that Sinbad was on the trip convinces me it wasn’t much of a “President in training” experience.
From the article:
Sinbad plays guitar?
StG
Sheryl Crowe was also traveling with them.
Woooooooooosh!