Hillary Clinton Dodges 'Imaginary' Sniper Fire and Then the Press

In an effort to distinguish herself from her rival for the Democratic nomination for President Hillary Clinton touts her leadership experience coming from "eight years of residing in the White House." Hearing this, many potential voters, as well as her opponent, question whether living in the White House for eight years qualifies as leadership experience. One political cartoonist provided a cartoon which suggested that since Bret Farve's wife had lived with him during his 17 years as quarterback for the Green Bay Packers that she was now qualified to replace him as quarterback.

The cartoonist's point, while funny, is valid. The voters know that merely residing in the White House does not leadership experience provide... her opponent knows that, and in recent weeks it appears that Hillary also sees that. Hillary, however must walk a very fine line. She wants credit for the successes of her husband's administration, but none of the blame for its' failures. Hillary wants credit for efforts she personally led during her years as First Lady, but refuses to allow documents detailing her role to be released.

It is a dilemma for her.

In an effort to enhance her image as one active in national security and international relations Hillary spoke of her 1996 trip to Bosnia. During a speech last Monday on Iraq, she said of the Bosnia trip: "I remember the trip to Bosnia quite well....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.... Due to reports of snipers in the hills around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with local children, though we did have time to meet them and their teachers and to learn how hard they had worked during the war to continue classes in any safe spot they could find."

Within hours CBS news reported that Hillary's account was exaggerated and produced video tape taken by a CBS crew traveling with Senator Clinton which showed her smiling, waving and walking calmly down a ramp from the plane to the tarmac where she was greeted by a young Bosnian girl who kissed the Senator on the cheek and in English read a poem of welcome.

Many observers of the arrival confirm there was no sniper fire, no imminent threat and That Senator Clinton was never in any danger during her Bosnian visit.

Following the CBS report Clinton spokespersons have been scrambling to explain that Senator Clinton simply "misspoke".

What is hard to understand is why Senator Clinton felt the need to bolster her image as a result of this visit. She deserves credit for going to Bosnia and visiting a potentially dangerous combat zone. There was no need to create a false image of bravado, that of a daring First Lady dodging enemy fire as she runs to support the troops.

Senator Clinton explains this as a misspeak, a temporary slip of the tongue, but it is more than that in terms of damage to her campaign. The Obama campaign suggested the statement was a deliberate exaggeration by Clinton, who often cites the goodwill trip with her daughter and several celebrities as an example of her foreign policy experience.

Other opponents of Clinton suggest that this only one more example of the former First Lady taking liberties with the truth and that this latest episode only serves to reinforce the arguments of those who have always questioned her credibility raising once again questions about the First Lady's involvement with the disappearance and then reappearance of Vince Foster's Rose Law firm billing records, her role in and denial of involvement in the "travelgate firings," her support and then denial of support for NAFTA, her silly, but oft reported claim of being named after Sir Edmund Hillary, when it was obvious she was born five years after he became well known, etc., etc.

The problem for candidate Clinton is not that she much exaggerated her role in Bosnia. The problem for her and her campaign is this has reminded the voters of many past questions concerning her credibility.

Senator Clinton isn't alone in the field of candidates who have misspoken.

Her chief accuser and her opponent Barack Obama has been forced to address some' misspeaks' of his own.

Caught off guard and badly embarrassed by bigoted and unpatriotic statements by his former pastor and mentor Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama initially denied that he had ever been present in the congregation when these remarks were made. Within days after recalling that hundreds of tapes of Reverend Wright's sermons had been distributed Senator Obama recanted his denial saying yes he had been present when these remarks were made.

Some political observers believe that Senator Obama's false denial of being present in congregation will hurt his reputation far more than his close association with Pastor Wright as it presents a credibility issue.

During his service in the Illinois legislature Senator Obama on eight different occasions found himself on the wrong (unpopular) side on votes on major legislation. Perhaps the most controversial of these votes was his vote to strip millions of dollars from child welfare programs in Chicago. When protests irrupted State Senator Obama explained his vote by saying "I was not aware I voted no." As he would also say with seven other unpopular votes over an eight year period, "I must have hit the wrong button" (voting yes instead of no).

Perhaps this is the reason Senator Obama would lead the Illinois Senate by casting 4,000 "Present" votes rather than voting "aye" or "nay" on many controversial votes.

Are these lapses limited to Democratic candidates?.....absolutely not.

John McCain the obvious Republican nominee has had a few lapses of his own. McCain has on more than one occasion stated that it is:
"common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate"

This caused Joe Lieberman who was present on the platform to quickly step forward and explain that McCain meant that Iran was training 'extremists' and not al-Qaeda militants.

As a presidential candidate McCain should know that Iran is made up of Shia Muslims while al-Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim organization.

On a recent good will visit to Jordan and the middle east Mc Cain enhanced his reputation as a world leader , but strongly denied his trip was politically motivated. Perhaps American voters would have believed this had the trip not concluded a huge fund raising event in London.

...and who can forget McCain's response to the question 'How should we deal with the Iran situation when he answered to the tune of of an old Beach boy song Barbra Ann......"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb....Bomb Iran".

It seems that Hillary's claim that she misspoke is one that can be shared by all candidates for office as none can resist embellishing their image or attempts to display wisdom and statesmanship. Perhaps this explains candidate Al Gore's claim that he invented the Internet or that he wrote "Love Story".

It is clear They all do it.

Thank goodness the American public sees through these transparent and egotistical distortions.