Hillary Under Fire

It seems that Hillary's latest tale of derring do, her gripping account of how she dodged sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia twelve years ago and had to bolt from her helicopter on landing were, shall we say, at odds with the more prosaic reality as captured by this now famous video from CBS. News.

Shame being in notably short supply in the Clinton campaign (Judas, anyone?), I had half expected them to try to tough this one out.  Perhaps they would claim that the CBS clip didn't show the moment when Mrs Clinton and Sheryl Crow came under fire from angry Serb gatecrashers ticked off that Sinbad wasn't geting more time at the microphone? That girl in the video handing her what looked like a greeting card at the arrival ceremony that wasn't supposed to have happened? Perhaps we'd be told it contained traces of a noxious substance that Mrs Clinton bravely ignored in the pursuit of some valuable hands-on foreign policy experience?

But it wasn't to be. Mrs Clinton claimed instead she merely "misspoke". That's fair enough. People do that. I can recall a president a while back saying "I never had sex with that woman". Turned out he misspoke too.

I had once thought that Mrs Clinton's sheer determination to fight on was her greatest asset. But now it looks merely like desperation.   Her main hope seems to be to hang on in the hope that something really horrible will emanate from the Obama campaign. That could happen. I'm with Christopher Hitchens in not being quite so impressed by St Barack's Epistle To the Americans on race last week.

But is this the way the Democrats really want their contest to end?  Watch as the  Clintons and their allies raise enough doubts about Mr Obama' electability (code for "race")  that the superdelegates will turn to her in the wreckage?

Comments

[Rachel Bell]

I can't believe this. This is not a mistake, or an exaggeration. It is a lie.

[americanabroad]

honesty and integrity are very important. that woman has neither. who wants a president who runs a chaotic campaign, with 'misspoken' words? who wants a president who can't remember details? who wants a president that embellishes the truth?

[FN]

Yes, hillary is Liar same like bill clinton
" I never have sex with this woman, ms. Monica.."
How can American can trust this woman?
Both of them back in White House again, then American will have BIG Problem LATER

[Constance Mitchell]

Hillary will do anythign to win, even to destroying the Democratic Party. Mr. Obama is trying to take the high road, but what can he do with Hillary's kitchen table politics. She is certainly dispecible.
Let's not forget the documents turning up in her White House bedroom and all the other lies she has been telling the American public over the years.
If Barac had said those lies, he would be history!!!!!!

[Doreen]

I believe this woman is so determined to win, and so damned evil, that she will stop at nothing - not even assassination!
God help Obama!

[Daphne Kenward]

Is it a co-inccident that Mrs Clinton for her Campaign used the add for Calpol, of a little girl who has now since grown up and is Voting Obama, and has been in the Media and openly says so on the International News. Then this Falshood about her international experience, doing what exactly on the coat tail of Mr Clinton shaking hands perhaps, the Clinton Name has a History OK. Only trouble is there are many footage of her she should be careful what she claims. She had been digging up the Dirt On Obama, about what other people are doing and saying and trying to attach Obama to it, other people can think what they like and say what they like. Obama is only too aware it not about the others it is all about you, and no one else. Rev Wright is not running for President of the United States, Nor is Farakahn, or some guy who he brought a house from, she should becareful that White Water scandal does not come back to haunt her, people living in glass houses should not throw stones.

[David Cunard]

It only takes a simple photograph of Mr Obama and the Rev. Wright with the words "God Damn America" superimposed over the latter to convince many American voters that Mr Obama is unelectable. British writers and readers forget all too easily how patriotic are Americans, and an affront to their country, as this was, eclipses the uplifting message of 'change' and 'hope'. The Clinton campaign will not press the issue, but if the Swift Boat commercials opposing Mr Kerry are any indication of how rough the going can be, then be assured that the 'pastor disaster' is far from over. Super delegates will be bound to consider this in Denver, and the "inevitability" of an Obama candidacy will vanish. It won't be race that determines the outcome but the credibility of a man who has chosen Dr Wright as his spiritual guide and mentor.

[Good Sport Aussie]

In Australia, it's simply called "bulls..t". What is this "misspoke" HRC. Sounds like a lie to me and simply reinforces my gut reaction to you many months ago...you are simply untrustworthy.

[Martyn Millard]

Perhaps a better example of 'mispokingness' might be 'Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction' or are we witnessing some political bias here.

[Jenni]

So Hitchen isn't impressed by Obama's speech????? You're kidding, right? I'm a mixed-race American and after living in England for 20 years his potential candidacy for President is just about the only reason (family aside) I'd even consider returning to live in the US. His speech resonated deeply for me and millions of others, I'm gobsmacked that anyone can read/hear that speech and not feel lifted by a) the truth of what he says and b) the recognition and acknowledgement of the press that we ALL need to understand what's he's said. He's neither 'playing the race card' nor defending inflamatory statements of Rev Wright. Get off your high horse and get real, the world needs Obama's courage, insight and intellectual brilliance. Look at the current presidential offering, then reconsider Obama. This is an opportunity for the entire world, not just the US, to benefit.

[tim]

don't you think this is a little over dramatic. This was an exageration for the sake of a story. We have all done it. Obama outright lied about Wright to try and save his skin, and tthen had to admit it a few days later anyway. This is not in the same league!!!!! Obviously there is no real news about?

[Andy Coxon]

Christopher Hitchens has a book called 'Letters to a Young Contrarian' for a reason....

Even if you didn't agree with the content, you couldn't fail to be impressed by the rhetoric of Obama's speech.

Hillary on the other hand, just time and again proves she's not to be trusted.

[Hank Price]

Let's call a spade a damned shovel! Hillary Clinton AND Bill Clinton are the WORST LIARS to ever have disgraced the White House.

Even Mr. We Need Change Obama is showing himself to be the liar he is.

What America needs is a thoroughly honest and decent politician -- like Ron Paul. Which is probably WHY the media did its best to discredit Ron Paul's campaign from the start.

Decency does not make headlines. Scandals and stenches do! Which explains perfectly WHY the media supported Bill Clinton 16 years ago and why the media supports Hillary Clinton and Barak Husein Obama today!

Because were either to ascend to the presidency, scandals and stenches would all be but guaranteed.

As to that vaunted "DREAM TICKET" -- it would simply guarantee a Republican win this November. Both Hillary and Obama being equally despicable to many of us voters.

[George Vasilakis]

The previous comment about Obama having to worry about an assasination from the HRC group is not all that crazy.

Consider all the so called suicides and strange deaths associated with the Clintons.

Their lawyer, his body guards, Ron Brown, the Yugoslavian air traffic controlor who caused Ron Bown,s plane to hit a mountain instead of a runway, etc.

I have another blog saved which lists around 20 strange suicides or accidents of people associated with the Clintons. You can discount one of these deaths, you can discount two, but can you discount all of them?

I do not really believe that HRC was all that upset at Bills escapades. She seemed more angry about him getting caught and destroying her chances for a future presidency.

I am certain that their sex was an agreement of making one child, each getting what they could on the side and both chasing women. How did Bill even know to select lesbians for the two Deparments of Health and Justice?

How did the supposedly sophisticated New Yorkers get fooled by such a sleezy carpetbgger?

[Chris]

I love it! Baker is a genius! Misstatement, mislewlinsky.

"I never had sexual relations with that woman, mislewinsky."

[Wesley, Texas]

Personally, I'm just impressed at how well trained Chelsea is.

Asked about both her father's proven infidelity and her mother's proven lying, she side-stepped the issues with the deftness of a politician twice her age -- citing privacy concerns in the former and feelings of honor and support for the military in the latter -- all without ever daring to risk the formulation of an indepenedent thought on the subjects.

Now that, is impressive.

[Tony Pike]

Americans love to use long words
Is this the reason why Hillary used the word "mis-spoke" instead of "lied"?

[Clive Warner]

When one in every nine black Americans are rotting in jail, I believe that Pastor Wright has a point.

[Gimme A Break]

Perhaps those were the thoughts going through their heads while they were on the plane preparing to make their way to the terminal gate. They knew there had been weapons fire throughout the country before they landed and surely they were apprehensive. And in their memories of the trip, perhaps those thoughts became the reality. Surely some of us remember episodes from the past differently from what really transpired. And just as surely some of our stories get more exaggerated the more times we tell them. I'm no great Clinton fan, but this is a non-story to me.

[NoOneYouKnow]

Want to know what Hillary's really about? Do some checking up on her involvement with the Iran-Contra scandal and the airfield in Mena, Arkansas. Her lying is the least of her "foibles."

[USAFvet]

I said several years back that a party led by a man most famous for an unstable scream (that would be Howard Dean) would self-implode. I also said that failing to win in '08 would, for all intents and purposes, be the end to the Democrats.
Look at the candidates they've presented since...
John Kerry...who got busted for lying about his Vietnam War record and flip-flopping on issues.
Hillary Clinton...who's getting busted for lying and exagerrating about her record and experiences.
Barack Obama...who's getting raked over the coals for his close relationship with his pastor...a man who spews racial and anti-America rhetoric.
Wow...talk about rolling out the winners! LOL
1991...women swooned and the masses were wooed and wowed by the smooth and slick oratory skills of a Democrat running for president.
2008...women are swooning and the masses are being wooed and wowed by the smooth and slick oratory skills of a Democrat running for president.
Except...the masses are now seeing the candidate from '91 and his wife for what they truly are - ruthless politicians who will do whatever it takes...even telling blatant lies (anyone who believes Hillary simply "misspoke" is a fool)...to win an election and the masses are turning on them.
Anyone else see history repeating itself?

[Hank Price]

Sorry to disagree with CONSTANCE MITCHELL, but Obama can hardly be said to "take the high road."

Sitting through 20 years of racist, anti-White venom and hatred spewed by Jeremiah Wright, yet being hypocrite enough to call for the firing of Don Imus for what was admittedly a bad joke. . . Do Americans REALLY want a phony like Obama for president?

We want racial justice AND racial equality. Which means that Obama blasting Imus, Obama having been found out -- should do the decent, HONORABLE thing and drop out. Let him assign his delegates to Mitt Romney or whomever was the third place finisher.

Sitting in silence through so much racial venom and hatred; and not speaking out AGAINST such venom makes Obama just as guilty of bias and inciting racial hatred as Wright!

Picture the screams of outrage were any Republican presidential aspirant guilty of such conduct -- like attending weekly Klan meetings, for one example!

Time to take the blinders from our eyes and see what a perversion Black's vision of equality and justice TRULY are! That Blacks should be allowed to do or say anything with impunity but would deny this same right to Whites.

[geg]

It's hard to believe the best the democrats can offer is a former cocaine user and a liar. To me they're both the same!

McCains looking better every day!

[Scott]

Hillary Clinton, like her husband, is a repeat and unrepentant prevaricator. She appears to have nary a single moral scruple about lying to anyone in order to get what she wants. Even when caught in an outright lie, she tries to wiggle free by making excuses for herself or claiming her "memory" of events is conveniently different than everyone else's.

Arghhhhh!!!!!

She is THE canonical example of what is WRONG with American politicians and is the last person the country should turn to for leadership. Period.

The Founding Fathers would be aghast at the thought of installing in the highest leadership position of the country someone who is so morally ill-equipped to lead.

Clinton makes O'Bama look like a saint, but they're both still left-of-center socialistic democrats. Ugh....

[Ankur]

I completely agree with Jenni. Obama is the only one brave enough to talk to Americans on race issues like they are adults. He does not over-simplify matters and completely condemns the Reverend. He is the only person who can truly see both sides of the coin on a personal level.

After years of America under Bush, the world is sick and tired of the empty rhetoric and fear mongering. Lets get real and get behind the man who offers the most honest answers to current problems.

As far as the Hitchens article goes, the man does not even look at what the Reverend's argument was. It fixates on the horrifying words, and does not look into the main argument (American foreign intervention has come back to haunt it now). It is sad that nobody is allowed to publicly criticize anything that America does abroad.