It’s unfortunate that politicians never speak plainly or directly, especially when it concerns a mistake. Obama’s dance around the statements made by his pastor is a recent example. Obama doesn’t agree with what his pastor said, but won’t condemn the statement. Perhaps it’s just politicking, but it’s an unfortunate commentary on our political landscape when we can’t expect anything better.
It’s in this light that we find Hillary’s recent fairyland reconstruction of her trip to Bosnia particularly disheartening.
Just to recap, Hillary has run on a platform of experience. She cites her 8 years of sleeping under the same roof (if not in the same bed) with the President as executive experience. She points to her “influential” visit to Bosnia as an example of her foreign policy experience. Hillary described landing in war-torn Bosnia as life-threatening, saying “I remember landing under sniper fire”, “there was no welcoming ceremony”, “we ran with our heads down”.
So when a CBS report showed that it was completely false, it shouldn’t be surprising that she’d dance around the issue. What is surprising is how far she’s gone in spinning the comments or trying to distract attention away from them. Her campaign started the spin, saying ”she meant that there was sniper fire in the hills around that area”. The problem is she was very clear about what she said happened. There was a greeting ceremony right off of the plane. There was no indication of any worry about snipers or any other threat. In fact Hillary and Chelsea are depicted hugging a young girl right on the tarmac, with no apparent hurry or concern that they might be shot at. When asked about Sinbad’s comments that the trip wasn’t threatened at all, Hillary said “he’s a comedian you know”.
Rather than being straightforward and honest about her experience in Bosnia, Clinton lied about the trip. Later, when caught in the lie, Clinton danced around the direct questions and attacked the people contradicting her account. Maybe she did learn a thing or two from Bill?
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