Bill Clinton misspeaks on wife's misspeaking
Trying to defend his better half, Bill Clinton might have made things worse.
The former president told Indiana voters Thursday night that Hillary Clinton has been unfairly maligned for embellishing her description of a humanitarian visit to Bosnia in 1996. On several occasions, she said she landed "under sniper fire," but after video surfaced of her and daughter Chelsea accepting flowers from little girls, she acknowledged that she misspoke. Pundits and critics, however, have been far harsher, accusing her of making up a story to pump up her foreign policy experience.
"A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me," Bill Clinton said in Boonville, Ind. "But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995."
He continued, "And you would of thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they all carried on about this. And some of them when they're 60 they'll forget something when they're tired at 11 o'clock at night, too."
But as the Associated Press points out in a fact-checker, Hillary Clinton told the story several times, including during prepared remarks on foreign policy delivered the morning of March 17. She also has never apologized and only acknowledged that she "misspoke" a week after the March 17 speech, after the video emerged.
The former president also was wrong in saying that his wife was the "first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone." Pat Nixon traveled to Saigon during the Vietnam war and Barbara Bush went to Saudi Arabia two months before the launching of Desert Storm, the AP points out.
Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer responded to the former president's remarks by saying today, "Senator Clinton appreciates her husband standing up for her, but this was her mistake and she takes responsibility for it."
He told reporters today that she has instructed him to quit talking about it.
"Hillary called me and said 'You don't remember this. You weren't there, let me handle it.' I said, 'Yes ma'am,' " he said.



the press is making a mountain out of a mole hill.
even if there was no sniper fire she was still in a war zone and imminent danger of any sniper fire. does this unfortunate use of words affect the security of america or it affects her policies. i wish press does more on rev wright and and tony or the right wing pastor in association with mccain.
IT IS ABOUT TIME THAT PRESS SHOWS SOME MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND WRITE ABOUT THE MATTERS WHICH CAN SHOW THE CANDIDATE,S VIEWS on major issues.
obama associated with racist pastor for over 20 years and says that his pastor,s views have no bearing on him. IF HE DID NOT LIKE HIS VIEWS THEN WHAT WAS THE REASON BEHIND A LONG ASSOCIATION.
A GOOD PRESS CAN RAISE THE MORALS OF A SOCIETY AND A BAD PRESS CAN DESTROY A NATIONS MORAL FABRIC
Hilliary did not lie! All she did was try to make the playing field between herself and a true American hero a little more even. That makes her perhaps envious and a little devious, oh what the hell a little lie isn't that bad. But it does show a tendency to exaggerate the truth if you don't care or think you can't get busted or nobody would believe a Clinton would lie. Or would they?
Is it an optical illusion or is Hilliary’s nose getting longer after each time she is interviewed about her personal and political experiences.
Lets talk about the lies we've caught Hillary in as much as we talked about Rev. Wright. Let's run it over and over and over for week after week. It's funny, some people would rather accept a liar for president than a black man. Enough said.
That's what you get with Hillie and Billie.... LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES. They are both habitual, pathological LIARS. It doesn't matter what they're talking about.... their personal lives, their past actions, their political beliefs, each other, no matter what.... LIES, LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES.
A mountain out of a molehill bhagwan?!?!?! This is the woman that had the gall to put out the infamous 3 am ad, that had a definite impact on the Ohio/Texas elections. And she didn't just misspeak, SHE WROTE IT DOWN...!!!
When you use 'experience' as a weapon against an opponent, and then tout your experience which is based on a lie, it's not a molehill. It's sad.
How she hasn't apologized for WRITING THIS DOWN, terrible . Say what you want about Rev. Wright, but Obama addressed it. She literally laughs this off (see Leno). I bet the Americans ducking sniper fire in Iraq now don't think its funny. Do you?
Response to Arnita April 11:
I agree with you that both Hillary and Minster Wright both have a tendancy to
stretch the truth, but each of them have different reasons for their lies.
Hillary's exagerates her political experience and life threating situations to establish her physical , mental toughness and political experience.
The Retired Reverand Wright's exagerations and lies are connected to the race relations between the Black and white people.His VCRs' document his view of
the aggregious oppression of his race by the white race.What is typical of this
is there is some truth in his arguments but the majority is pure unsubstantiated
stories that only demean the actual black experience and Barrack Obomma.
Chances for a John McCain-Colin Powell ticket likely crashed and burned Thursday when the ex-secretary of state said the next President won't be able to fight two wars at current troop levels.
Powell also irked Republicans by praising Democratic front-runner Barack Obama for his handling of the firestorm surrounding comments made by his ex-pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright - and dismissed criticism the Illinois Democrat doesn't have enough experience to be President.
On the same day President Bush announced he'll halt troop withdrawals after July and keep the U.S. force level in Iraq at 140,000, the former highest-ranking general stuck to his script in giving advice to presidential candidates.
"Whichever one of them becomes President on Jan. 1, 2009, they will face a military force that cannot continue to sustain 140,000 people deployed in Iraq ...or 25,000 people we have deployed in Afghanistan and our other deployments," Powell told ABC's "Good Morning America."
I FELL THE PRESS DONT LOOCK IN SENATOR OBAMA .. PINOCCHIO NOSE IN THE WAY THE LOOCK THE COLORS OF THE CLOSE OF SENATOR HILLARRY CLINTON.. IS OBVIOUS THE AMERICAN PRESS IS BECAMA CLOSE TO TRUTH IN A MOMENT America need armony ... they jest want out a woman who have the guts and the quality to make America better sergio premoli los angeles
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
Send your comments to masspolitics@globe.com
browse this blog
by categoryINside Boston.com