Depending on your opinion of Hillary Clinton, you might say that she lied, or embellished, or misspoke.
In any event, her account of being under hostile fire during a visit to Bosnia in 1996 was false.
GREENSBURG, Pa. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she made a mistake in claiming that she came under hostile fire in Bosnia 12 years ago, as rival Barack Obama's campaign continued to challenge her credibility.
In a recent speech and interviews, the New York senator described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in 1996. But video footage of the day showed a peaceful reception in which a young girl greeted the first lady on the tarmac.
Clinton told reporters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that she erred in describing the scene, which she now realizes after talking with aides and others.
"So I made a mistake," she said. "That happens. It proves I'm human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation."
The more important issue, she said, is whether she would be a better commander in chief than Obama or Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Clinton and Obama are competing for votes in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.
Clinton's aides had tried to control the Bosnia flap Monday, saying the New York senator "misspoke."
But Clinton had to address the issue herself Tuesday, after repeated airings of the 1996 video clips caused critics to ridicule her.
Reminded that she had said it was the first time she had misspoken in 12 years, Clinton told reporters: "I was joking. Lighten up, guys."
Yes, while Obama was vacationing in the Virgin Islands, the most important issue of the Democrat primary race was Hillary's account of her Bosnia visit.
All that the media cared about was Hillary's screw-up or deception or whatever it was.
Why is so much emphasis put on these goofy things? Why are they given so much weight?
...Clinton began retracting the remarks in a series of private interviews Monday and Tuesday before addressing about two dozen reporters here after a speech.
She told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "I was sleep-deprived, and I misspoke."
She told KDKA radio in Pittsburgh: "You know, I have written about this and described it in many different settings, and I did misspeak the other day. This has been a very long campaign."
That sounds a little weird.
The sleep-deprivation excuse isn't good. It's better to say she made a mistake and leave it at that. Apologize and move on. Get back to the real issues.
The Obama campaign fueled the Bosnia brouhaha Tuesday, sponsoring a conference call with Pennsylvania reporters that featured retired Maj. Gen. Walter Stewart of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Stewart said he was assigned to the Army's European headquarters when Clinton visited Bosnia as first lady in 1996. He said her claim that she landed under enemy fire insulted U.S. soldiers charged with her security.
Clinton's explanation that she misspoke was "really astonishing," said Stewart, who supports Obama.
"She has no sense of what a statement like that does to soldiers," Stewart said. "She is insulting the command in its entirety."
"Believe me, heads would have rolled all over" if the military put the first lady and her daughter in a position of "unacceptable risk."
Obama's campaign is in no position to be casting stones when it comes to insulting the military.
Obama has belittled the military's accomplishments in Iraq and besmirched the sacrifice of U.S. personnel in what he calls a "dumb war."
AMES, Iowa -- A day after jumping into the presidential race, Democrat Barack Obama began the courting of Iowa party activists Sunday with a blistering critique of the war in Iraq.
More than 6,000 people who came to hear him at the Iowa State University campus saved their biggest cheers for his criticism of the war.
"We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized, and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted," Obama said.
Obama bashes the military but now, when it's politically expedient, his campaign is condemning Hillary's "confusion" about her Bosnia experience as such a terrible insult to the military.
Give me a break.
At her news conference, Clinton said, "the military and the Secret Service did a terrific job" of handling the situation in Bosnia. "We did take precautions," she said, noting that she was the first president's wife to enter a war zone since Eleanor Roosevelt.
Certainly, Hillary should be forgiven.
Obama lied, or "misspoke," about his knowledge of his pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racist, anti-Semitic, anti-American remarks.
Again and again, even after the tapes of Wright's hateful sermons were receiving lots of airplay, Obama said he didn't know about Wright's comments.
Of course, just days later, Obama delivered the speech and retracted what he had been saying about his knowledge of Wright's views.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes.
As soon as Obama's camp determined that this issue wasn't going away, it was hurting him, and it had the potential to do even more damage if he kept up the ruse, Obama changed his story. He admitted that he was present in church to hear Wright make controversial statements.
So Hillary changed her story, too.
If Obama is allowed to retract his "misspoken" statements, then Hillary should be given the same opportunity.
Think of the many lies of Al Gore from the 2000 election. His public career is packed with lies.
Dems didn't care about Gore's pathological lying.
Obama has lied. Hillary has lied.
Although both are guilty of playing loose with the truth, I find Hillary's story-telling to be less disturbing than Obama's association with racist Rev. Wright.
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