Tuesday, March 25, 2008

HILLARY CLINTON

Hillary's Modified Limited Hangout on the Bosnia Sniper Story

Hillary half-retracts, half-doubles down on her Bosnia story, mentioning that she was traveling in a C-17 because it was armored, that she was traveling in the cockpit for security reasons, that the passengers were told to sit on their bulletproof vests, and, perhaps most oddly, "there was no greeting ceremony." (That's in the audio I just heard on XM.)

Her additional comments yesterday:

"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," she told the newspaper.

"I was told we had to land a certain way, we had to have our bulletproof stuff on because of the threat of sniper fire. I was also told that the greeting ceremony had been moved away from the tarmac but that there was this 8-year-old girl and, I can't, I can't rush by her, I've got to at least greet her — so I greeted her, I took her stuff and then I left. Now that's my memory of it."

What's really revealing about this little brouhaha is that it appears that after the first time she told the story and questions were raised, there was no one around to tell Hillary to drop the story. A good candidate needs someone around them they trust who have the guts to tell them when they mess up, and Hillary was making a very avoidable mistake by telling a story that was so easily checked. (It also didn't pass the smell test — the Clintons would expose then-16-year-old Chelsea to potential sniper fire?)

I'm pleased to note that the Campaign Spot was raising these questions before Hillary finished her speech last Monday. 

03/25 08:42 AMShare