If her entire message wasn't based around the overstated notion of her "experience", especially when it comes to foriegn policy, this would not be that big of a deal.

What I love is that she passed it off as saying she "misspoke."
Misspeaking is getting a date wrong or using the wrong name for a person or place. It's not telling a completely different story from what actually happened.

It seems to me that the people she hires to make sure she’s remembering it correctly fell very short.

She may have been instructed to make the greeting short and that they shortened it due to a past sniper incident. She may have been told that it was looking rather unstable in the area. She’s also still a mom so she might have been very afraid for her child enhancing her view on what was going on.

Yes she should have done the homework on this one.

I can say that folks remember things very differently. Argue with your spouse I’d bet what you remember is different from what you remember.

Milly, are you saying it's someone else's fault that she didn't tell the truth?

She didn't fudge a detail. She misrepresented the entire account of what happened. She said they ran straight from the choppers to the caravan with their heads down b/c of enemy fire and skipped the greeting ceremony. The truth is that she walked smiling with everyone else to the greeting ceremony and even posed for pictures in elevated positions, etc. She fabricated the entire thing.

And this was because the people she hired to maintain her memory for her failed?
When is it her responsibility to tell the truth about her own experiences? You don't have to do homework about what happened to you. You either got shot at or you didn't. You wouldn't need to look that up.

Misremembering details in a spousal argument is not the same.
The analogy would be more like having your spouse yell at you and you recounted the incident as your spouse stabbing you.

It would be "misremembering" if the incident she described happened in a different country. But that at least happened somewhere.

did anything like she describes happen anywhere? If not, that's not misremembering or conflating memories, which happens to all of us.

But making something up and saying it actually happened...hard to call that anything other than a lie. Though I'm sure the Clintons could come up with many other creative words for it.

Maybe it's "true" in the sense that Bill Clinton believes the Bible is true. (A Reference to his address to new Baptist Covenant gathering.)

It seems to me that the people she hires to make sure she’s remembering it correctly fell very short.

I'm pretty sure that I'd remember being held down under a barrage of sniper fire. I certainly wouldn't need to hire someone to make sure I remembered it correctly.

She claimed this happened to her when it didn't solely so she can gain some credibility. This is a slap in the face to the honorable men and women who really do face these dangers day in and day out without any of the recognition that she and so many other self-serving politicians wallow in.

'Scuse me while I dismantle my soapbox. *whistle*

Oh wait, I guess she was telling the truth.

Because she was somewhere in the neighborhood of the truth. Check out the link.

Close only counts in horseshoes, handgrenades, and when a Clinton is telling the story.

What amazes me is that the Smartest Woman in the World forgot that cameras followed her every move when she became candidate for First Lady and have followed her every move ever since.

Phil, so the story is that standard safety procedures equals skipping a ceremony and ducking from sniper fire?

Her spin is that they were careful.
Well, duh.

Taking precautions isn't the same thing as saying certain evetns happened that didn't and saying certain events didn't happen that did.

The CBS reporter says the way she says it happened didn't happen.

Every politician who flies into combat-torn situations goes in armored transport, etc. That doesn't mean they were fired on.

I love the guy standing up saying, regardless of if her story was true or not, it sounds likely. LOL

I'm no Hillary apologist, but is it possible that she flew into Bosnia on more than one occasion? I haven't looked at the story too carefully. Maybe the CBS account is not the same trip???

She's drowning slowly. This campaign can't take too much more. Unfortunately for the Dems, after she wins PA, she'll keep on keepin' on.

Her best argument for the Superdelegates selecting her will be that she won all of the battleground states. She has a better chance at besting McCain than Obama in PA, OH, FL, etc. These are the states where the Presidency is decided.

Sure, there are a lot of Democrats here, but in Texas, McCain won't be seen too often - he's likely got us in the bag. Sure, Obama won Mississippi. Guess what? That's probably going to McCain, too.

The best thing she's got going is her appeal in the battleground states, but I don't think that the DNC will take the bait.

I'm no Hillary apologist, but is it possible that she flew into Bosnia on more than one occasion? I haven't looked at the story too carefully. Maybe the CBS account is not the same trip???

Unlikely, since she has already answered questions on it saying that she "misspoke". Her campaign is on lock down, refusing to answer questions about it. If it was a different trip, wouldn't they simply come out and say that?

Glad to poke at a bear and get a rise. ;-]
In no way am I saying she is right to lie. I will say that the press loves a good spin. I will also say that I’ve seen how protective the secret service is. I’ve seen them in action. I have no doubt that she was told all kinds of cautions, ones that would frighten a mother. I’ve seen the panic on the faces of those men who are protecting a Mrs. Gorbachev when they lose sight of her. That was a good bit of fun.

No she shouldn’t have made it sound like she was standing on the front line with a target on her at all. I’m saying that we all see things differently. Trust me I’ve been in a hard situation for a long time and we are seeing things very differently.

the Smartest Woman in the World
I doubt the smartest would want the job.

I’m also saying that her people should have shown her the video first. These are the folks you hire to keep you from doing that kind of stuff. I do realize they can’t stop them from opening their big mouths boy how we know that these days.

I’m voting MoonPiest this time. That’s right MoonPies, cigars, and ice tea-the good life for all.


The analogy would be more like having your spouse yell at you and you recounted the incident as your spouse stabbing you

Words can feel that way sometimes.

I'm a mom. I don't think my "Mom" emotions would make me get so hysterical that I would think I was being fired on and ducking for cover when I wasn't.

I had to defend my children at the zoo a few weekends ago from some large tweenage bullies. I don't remember it that they had knives and I had to call in a SWAT team. I remember that I said sternly, "Don't push my sons!!!" - cause that's what happened.

Now. Being immature tweens who wanted to look good, if they tell the story I'm sure they will change the details to make their role much more innocent and impressive and make me a lot taller, a lot uglier, a lot more irrational, and a lot scarier. But they won't be misremembering - they'll be lying.

Oh - and if it's normal and excusable for maternal instincts to cause such extreme distortions of reality, then no mom should EVER be president. After all, even if your kids are grown, you're always a mom and you always feel protective.

Oh - and if it's normal and excusable for maternal instincts to cause such extreme distortions of reality, then no mom should EVER be president. After all, even if your kids are grown, you're always a mom and you always feel protective.

Well said.

In no way was I saying that you’d make up a lie during a maternal moment. I’m saying that they drilled her rather hard about how bad the situation was and I have no doubt that it would bring out a mom wanting to be protective feeling. I know they drill hard because they did my dad when he met Mrs.Reagan. She came to see him because of his work. I do think that she was wrong in saying the situation was more than it was but without a doubt she was in a larger amount of danger being there then at the zoo assuming it was a nice zoo and not the Bronx Zoo.



I don’t actually know all the detail of the trip and I’m sure the press will decide to tell us only what they want us to know.

Now I want to go to the zoo.

Good for you for letting the tweens have it for picking on the little ones. I’ve had to yell a time or two myself and you’re right I’d bet they told it differently. The poor kids having to run to the car under momma fire.

Milly, we're all playing nice here, but I have to ask you: Are you saying she was wrong about the facts, mistaken but not lying?

Nobody's saying a person of her position wouldn't be at risk in a place like that. But repeating that seems to be a dodge of what's really the situation here: She said something really dramatic happened, and it didn't.

Jared,
No in fact I said that she shouldn't have done that I am saying that they have a way of making things sound more dramatic when they brief you about a situation.

It’s a known fact that we humans tend to distort the truth and studies have proven it over and over again. I may have to testify against a man because I witnessed a crime. I’ve tried to keep the detail short and remember how he looks. I know how easy it is to remember wrong.
Witnesses can exhibit strong belief in their memories, even when those memories are verifiably false. A college professor set his students up to witness a crime. When the students were interviewed many of them saw weapons that weren’t there. Some described the situation much more intense.

What I’m saying is that she might have said what she believed happened.

I will also say I think politicians are good at lying. I come from a very political family I know how good they can be at changing the truth.

So the answer is could be she’s just out and out lying or confused. Or the press is spinning it.

we're all playing nice here

I never thought anything else. You Reps need me to balance and poke you once in a while. ;-}

A couple of years ago my kids and I were camping out in the desert of Southern California. There was nobody around for miles and a space alien came down and made weird noises and I could see them waving their arms around because it was really bright from the space ship! I know that if I had fallen asleep they would have taken my brain.

(what really happened: a large cactus made a shadow against my tent in the full moon and there were coyotes around)

1. You don't need a "spin team" to remember whether or not you got shot at. A person tends to remember bullets flying around (which is not the same as remembering whether or not a person has brown or black hair). Especially since most people don't experience flying bullets on a regular basis.

2. Firearms make a pretty distinctive sound. Quite unlike the sound of cameras rolling.

3. It is unwise to not at least review the video before you nod and say decisively, "and that's what happened."

Here's a multiple choice question.

Will Ms Clinton get a pass on lying because she is
(a) a mom
(b) a politician
(c) a democrat
(d) a Clinton?

(oh...not that I'm irritated with anybody here, I'm merely increasingly cynical about the democratic candidates for president.)

Ellen, you're my new hero. :-D

I'm merely increasingly cynical about the democratic candidates for president.

I feel that way about all sides. We need a hero. It seems that with the growing decrease in standards and the media things are looking rather grim.

The fact of it is, Sen. Clinton has a pattern of doing this--of telling stories to make herself look more important/dramatic/etc. than she actually is. Anyone remember the one she told about Chelsea after 9/11? We don't excuse this sort of thing when our kids do it--why should we excuse it in a grown woman?

Gallup Poll: Many Democrats Ready to Vote McCain if Their First Choice Doesn’t Make It to November

Many Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters are ready to spurn the Democratic party and vote for John McCain in November if their candidate doesn’t win the presidential nomination, according to a new poll out Wednesday.

>>For what it's worth

>>For what it's worth

Probably not much. We heard the same sort of talk from folks on the right about McCain; aside from that crazy-legs Coulter, they've all fallen into place, not necessarily happily, but they've done it. (And what Coulter will do when she finds she's backed yet another losing candidate, I don't dare guess.)

"You Reps need me to balance and poke you once in a while. ;-}"

Another Dem here? Is that possible? Be still my heart I'M NOT ALONE!!!! ;-)

That's right scott! It's you and me against the world dude!