Posted on 03/25/2008 7:33:48 AM PDT by jdm
Hillary Clinton finally acknowledged what even Howard Wolfson couldn’t spin away — that she didn’t stroll off an airplane in Tuzla in 1996 under sniper fire. In an editorial meeting with the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, Hillary called the controversy a “minor blip”, but admitted that she made a “misstatement” when it came to the danger she faced in Tuzla. That admission only came after video clearly showed Hillary and her entourage, including a 15-year-old Chelsea, smiling and moving unhurriedly to a greeting ceremony she claimed never happened:
Clinton acknowleged today for the first time that it was a “misstatement” when she said in a major prepared foreign policy speech last week that “I remember landing under sniper fire” but also tried to brush off the entire issue as “a minor blip.” She also gave a revised account of her airplane landing and her tarmac greeting at the Tuzla Air Force base 12 years ago — seeking to explain a picture re-published this weekend in the Washington Post showing her and daughter Chelsea calmly greeting an 8-year-old girl.
In her speech last week at George Washington University, Clinton maintained “[t]here 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. Today, she told our group at the Daily News that she was informed that we “had to meet this 8-year-old girl,” so “I took her stuff and left.”
The dispute is hardly a trivial one because the New York senator has tried to stress that foreign policy experience is why voters in Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary should chose her over Sen. Barack Obama, the overall leader in delegates and primary votes. And she has placed the Bosnia trip front and center, to the extent that her account of her visit there led off last week’s televised speech. Here’s what she said then:
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. But it was a moment of great pride for me to visit our troops, not only in our main base as Tuzla, but also at two outposts where they were serving in so many capacities to deactivate and remove landmines, to hunt and seek out those who had not complied with the Dayton Accords and put down their arms, and to build relationships with the people that might lead to a peace for them and their children.
Even CBS decided to offer the conclusive proof of her “misstatement”, showing the video on its national news program last night. When CBS provides the torpedo, then the rest of us know the target has already been sunk for the Clintons.
Hillary still wants to spin this, as her extended answer demonstrates. She insists that her argument about foreign-policy experience still remains relevant. The meltdown over her credibility has fogged the actual argument in which Hillary used Tuzla, which was that she was so good at foreign policy that her husband’s administration would send her instead of the diplomats, especially if it was too dangerous for the President to visit personally.
Unfortnately for Hillary, she still hasn’t come up with an actual example. She told the Inquirer editors that she visited 80 countries, but that doesn’t mean she conducted any heavy foreign-policy duties on those trips. First Ladies travel abroad frequently, with and without their presidential husbands, but that doesn’t constitute the kind of experience that Hillary demands we infer from her journeys. In all of the cases we have seen, she conducted the kind of ceremonial duties that First Ladies always do, not hard-charging diplomatic initiatives that would demonstrate better experience than Barack Obama or John McCain, especially the latter.
And now the admission that she misrepresented the Tuzla trip in both danger and importance undermines what little credibility she had left after insisting that she should receive credit for all of the foreign-policy initiatives during her husband’s administration. Without experience or credibility, just what can she offer?
Ok thne where was it that she had to duck and run while getting shot at/ i would think that would be a pretty vivid memory...
Shoot, even I can lie better than she can. After being questioned I would have responded with "well by the time we were walking down the ladder from the plane, the snipers ran out of bulletts........"
Brilliant connection...more Americans need to open their eyes.
Thanks
Worse, they are utterly shameless and have little regard for the consequences of being exposed.
Dont forget Hillary saying that Chelsea was at Ground Zero on 9-11...
Chelsea said, “No I wasn’t, Mom.”
Don't you mean she fought with the Khmer Rouge?/s
That memory of sniper fire in Tuzla was seared into her memory just like Bill’s searing memory of black churches burning in Arkansas when he was a boy. What a duo of bald-faced liars!
Our nation deserves to be punished if it votes this couple back into power, knowing what kind of people they are.
“You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with You the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors.” Psalm 5:4-6.
Hmm..... so it’s a ‘misspeak’ if a Democrat does it....and a “LIE!!! A HORRIBLE LIE!!!” if it’s a Republican does... ok, got it
I asked Bill Clinton this very question.
He replied, "Did you ever have a horse eat sugar out of your hand?"
For the democrat convention, I'm getting some caramel corn. Gona sit back and enjoying the entertainment Fireworks!
more fun with it here in my state (Chel’s didn’t get the talking points memo in time)
Maybe someone will ask bill about that pesky Juanita Broderick ‘rape’ allegation too....
The NASA bit is probably true, except she was rejected because the rockets couldn’t blast her fat ass into space.
Same old Clinton different day. When her mouth moves it is most likely a lie. BIAAATCH!!!
Excellent point on how the MSM and Demagogues treated the “sixteen words” and the comparison with this case.
President Bush spoke words that are still literally true - the Brits have stood by their intel claim. In any case, he reported to the American public and Congress on what he was told by the intel agencies, not something he made up.
OTOH, Shrillary concocts a tale out of whole cloth, in order to have a good campaign story to support her important (sic) role in diplomacy of the ‘90s, and it turns out there is conclusive video, photo, and witness evidence available to show she LIED. As in fabricated, invented, concocted, b.s.-ed her way through.
You are all being too harsh on Hellary. It all depends on your definition of sniper-fire. In KKKlinton-speak, sniper fire means “little girl reading poem”.
dude! that is the best hitlery animation i have ever seen! thanks. sort of.
As she heloed down fast into Tuzla
She saw the glint off a sniper’s muzzle
Thinking,”here Ron Brown
Bill had gunned down,”
Ran to avoid being the next piece of the puzzle
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