As the election cycle joylessly grinds on, it's wonderful to have the occasional opportunity to enjoy a hearty laugh. Possibly even a chortle or two.
Luckily for me, I have a transcript of Hillary Clinton's stab at attaining the endorsement of the Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board. Actually, it's just the part where she's confronted with her categorical falsehood--excuse me, I mean when she "misspoke" about her trip to Bosnia. Since everyone knows this story every which way by now, I'll just write about her comments today.
The Inquirer stated that "Clinton acknowledged today for the first time that it was a 'misstatement' when she said in a major prepared foreign policy speech last week that 'I remember landing under sniper fire.'"
But wait--it gets much better.
The reporter proceeded to ask Clinton about the discrepancies in accounts of the trip. Note that by discrepancies he means what she said happened and what actually happened.
Sen. Clinton was "quick to answer," stating: "Now let me tell you what I can remember, OK -- because what I was told was that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire. So I misspoke -- I didn't say that in my book or other times but if I said something that made it seem as though there was actual fire -- that's not what I was told. I was told we had to land a certain way, we had to have our bulletproof stuff on because of the threat of sniper fire. I was also told that the greeting ceremony had been moved away from the tarmac but that there was this 8-year-old girl and, I can't, I can't rush by her, I've got to at least greet her -- so I made a -- I took her stuff and then I left, Now that's my memory of it.
That's rich, but it gets better.
The reporter followed-up with a question of whether having misspoke might damage her foreign policy credentials and overall credibility. Sen. Clinton answered: "No, I went to 80 countries, you know. I gave contemporaneous accounts, I wrote about a lot of this in my book. you know, I think that, a minor blip, you know, if I said something that, you know, I say a lot of things -- millions of words a day -- so if I misspoke, that was just a mistatement."
"I say a lot of things," but that doesn't mean that the voters should believe them. Or that they should reflect on my character if quite a few of them turn out to be bald-faced lies. Hey--I'm trying to get elected here.
Sen. Clinton, I do believe your pantsuit is on fire. Geez . . . you'd think that someone that was married to Bill for all these years would be a better liar. I don't think rapid fire, you know, stammering helps, you know, convince people that, you know, your telling the truth. Maybe that's just me.
Memories are strange things. Especially under the stress of, you know, sniper fire.