The Cincinnati Beacon
Busted lying again? Shame on you Hillary Clinton!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Posted by Justin Jeffre
Hillary Clinton claimed Obama wasn’t being honest when his campaign literature criticized her record of support for NAFTA. She was in blue collar Ohio claiming that she had always been against her husband’s job killing and union smashing trade agreement, but was later busted by Tim Russert in a debate when he pointed out that she supported NAFTA as late as 2004. Now the corporate lawyer’s been busted lying again about her record. Or did she just “misspeak”?
While Obama’s pastor’s comments continue to catch more media attention than Hillary Clinton’s credibility gap, it’s worth noting that many of the former first lady’s recollections don’t match up with reality. Clinton claimed her plane landed under fire in Bosnia when she was first lady and she had to duck and run to her vehicle.
Clinton said, “I remember landing under sniper fire.” Her tall tale seemed unforgettable when she said, “There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base. But it was a moment of great pride for me.”
That’s certainly a memorable event that would be hard to forget and would’ve been widely reported, but this television footage tells a different tale. Thanks to the BBC we know she was disembarking with a smile, waving to the crowd and strolling across the tarmac to greet a little girl who read her a poem. That’s pretty scary stuff!
Later, when Clinton was challenged about her claims she back peddled. “I did misspeak the other day. You know this has been a very long campaign [laughs] so occasionally I am a human being like everybody else”, said Clinton.
This BBC article discusses her use of the word “misspeak” and according to one of the editors of Collins English Dictionary it’s no accident that American politicians have grasped for this phrase and they often do so when they don’t want to say they told a deliberate untruth.
Cormac McKeown says:
It can mean to fluff one’s lines, like an actor would, but it can also mean to speak erroneously or hastily without thinking, without giving it proper thought, so Clinton is relying on this ambiguity between the two meanings because then she can’t really be proved wrong.
“But it’s a stretch of the imagination that it was a slip of the tongue because it was quite a long and involved story that went on for about five minutes. “So if pressed she might say she was referring to the second meaning but she’s hoping the first meaning carries through in people’s minds.”
While it’s good to know that Hillary Clinton is “occasionally a human being like everyone else,” it seems clear that Clinton didn’t just “misspeak”—she actually made the story up, just as when she falsely claimed she’s always been critical of NAFTA.
How can we believe anything Hillary Clinton says if she is willing to keep lying about her record? How come Obama’s Pastor’s comments are more of a story than his rival being caught telling another big lie?
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