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Hillary’s words come under heavy fire
WASHINGTON (AP)
iISSUE: 78/26
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Why wasn’t the truth good enough for Hillary Rodham Clinton? That’s a question worth considering as the former first lady tries to contain damage to her credibility after getting caught exaggerating the danger of her 1996 trip to Bosnia. Is there a pattern of embellishment?
The answer is yes. Perhaps she’s driven by insecurity; Clinton must think her resume needs padding to reflect “35 years of experience” and the promise to be “ready on Day One.” The fact is that Clinton and her entourage were warned in advance that Bosnia was hostile territory and that there had been sniper fire reported in the hills surrounding the tarmac at some point before the trip.
During a recent speech in Iraq, Clinton stretched the truth to the breaking point. “I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia and ... there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor or too dangerous, the president
couldn’t go, so send the first lady. That’s where we went. I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”
Hogwash. The truth is: There was no sniper fire. Nobody ducked for cover. Bad weather, not security concerns, kept her husband from making the same trip a few months earlier.
Clinton and her aides stood behind the story, which she has told more than once, until video surfaced showing the former first lady, her daughter, Chelsea and their entourage strolling off the plane and walking calmly across the tarmac.
What makes Clinton’s situation unique—and the Bosnia embellishments so damaging—is the fact that the New York senator has built her candidacy on the illusion of experience. Any attack on her credentials is a potential Achilles heel. As first lady, she did not attend National Security Council meetings, did not receive the presidential daily briefing on terrorism and other threats and did not have a top level security clearance. Her foreign trips were glorified goodwill tours, a collection of photo opportunities and sightseeing trips.
And so the best explanation for her Bosnia embellishment may be this simple, and this human: She’s overcompensating.
