Hillary Clinton Caught in a Lie About a Trip to Bosnia

Hillary Clinton, while on the stump, likes to tell a story about a visit she made to Bosnia in 1996. According to her account the plane made a corkscrew landing to avoid being shot down. Ms. Clinton and company had to make a run for it to the vehicles under sniper fire.

There is only one problem. It never happened.

A great many members of our free and unfettered media remember the visit as well and remember it differently. Apparently there was no sniper fire and no mad dash to the vehicles while rounds smacked into the tarmac.

Indeed, there is even video of Hillary Clinton calmly being greeted by a reception committee and even being gifted with flowers by a cute, eight year old Bosnian girl. The entertainer Sinbad, who was in Hillary Clinton's entourage for some reason, remembers that his only worry was when he was going to get fed.

Hillary Clinton is now trying to back pedal, explaining how she "misspoke" (political speak for "lie.") It's rather pathetic, watching her try to do it and not succeed.

One should not be surprised to know that a Clinton occasionally lies in public. It is in their nature. Bill Clinton is the same way, only better at it.

The eyebrow lifting aspect of the whole thing was how stupid the lie was. The trip to Bosnia was a public event, with plenty of witnesses and even the video tape. Did Hillary Clinton not know that she would be found out? Did she think that the media would spare her the humiliation just because she is Hillary Clinton?

Ms. Clinton has also padded her resume by claiming to have been intimately involved in the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. The problem is that not one of the actual participants in that negotiation remembers her being around.

Hillary Clinton is not the first nor shall be the last politician to pad a resume. John Kerry, while running for President in 2004, used to reminisce about a secret expedition to Cambodian waters while commanding a Swift Boat in South East Asia. The problem was that the date he indicated for this foray did not fall within the known period of his service in country.

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who was briefly a candidate for President in 1992, used to claim flying combat missions in Vietnam when he had not. Harkin's main job was ferrying fighter planes to Japan where they would undergo maintenance.

Hillary Clinton's problem is that, should she deny Barack Obama the nomination by securing it as her own, she will have to run against John McCain. John McCain will find it hardly necessary to exaggerate his war time heroics or his foreign and defense policy acumen. Ms. Clinton can try to trump Barack Obama with tales of behind the scenes foreign policy experience as First Lady. Such attempts will not fly against John McCain.

Matching McCain's real credentials for heroism and experience with phony ones may well be beyond the powers even of a Clinton.