Clinton under fire
US elections 2008: Hillary's claim that she braved snipers in Bosnia has been exposed as fraudulent, and the media backlash has begun
The last few weeks have been kind to Hillary Clinton - but that's starting to change. Clinton has been caught telling a lie so flagrant, so self-serving and so unnecessary that it takes your breath away. The media are on to her, and they're beginning to unload.
Here's how it unfolded. On March 17, at a speech at George Washington University, Clinton spoke about a terrifying mission to Tuzla, Bosnia that she had undertaken on behalf of her husband, the then-president, in March 1996.
"I remember landing under sniper fire," 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." Wow. Now there's a woman you want answering that red phone at 3am.
Except that it never happened. I could quote the comedian Sinbad, who was along for the ride, but let's cut to the chase. There's video from CBS News. It shows Hillary and Chelsea Clinton calmly walking off the plane. They were greeted by various dignitaries, including an eight-year-old Bosnian girl, whom Hillary smilingly embraces. No sniper fire. No heads-down sprint through a hail of bullets. Just the sort of good-will tour a first lady and her daughter might undertake provided there was no danger of anyone's getting hurt.
To make matters worse, Clinton's lie was being exposed just as the tide was starting to shift toward Barack Obama again.
Make no mistake: Obama's candidacy has been permanently diminished now that we know more about his longstanding relationship with his ranting former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But Obama's thoughtful speech on race last week was well received, thus limiting the damage.
Over the weekend, Obama was endorsed by longtime Clinton retainer Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and a representative of two vital constituencies: Latinos and superdelegates. Richardson even had the temerity to suggest that Clinton should get out of the race. That, in turn, led Clinton consigliere James Carville to call Richardson's endorsement an "act of betrayal" worthy of Judas, a remark that caused millions to rack their brains over whether they may have missed any Jesus-like qualities in Hillary Clinton over the years. Of course, it's possible that by the time this ends she'll claim to have walked on water.
Ever since Clinton's victories in Texas and Ohio on March 4, the media had been going easier on her. There's no question they had been relentlessly negative, especially in comparison to Obama. A now-famous Saturday Night Live skit may have goaded them into toughening up their coverage of Obama. Or maybe it was just overdue.
Clinton's Bosnia lie has reminded the media that the Clintons are utterly shameless and will say anything. The Washington Post, declaring that her sniper claim was "simply not credible", bestowed upon her its coveted "Four Pinnochios", a designation reserved for "whoppers". The pro-Obama Jed Report put together a brutal mash-up of Clinton's March 17 remarks and the CBS News footage that had been viewed more than 133,000 times as of Monday evening. It's going to be rough for Clinton this week and perhaps beyond.
Moreover, there's a sense that the media may have overcorrected in their coverage of Obama this month. Just the other day, Fox News host Chris Wallace took a few of his colleagues to task for "somewhat distorting" Obama's characterisation of his grandmother as "a typical white person". When the folks at GOP-TV start fighting among themselves over such things, one can only imagine what the conversation is like in the newsrooms of the so-called liberal media.
By Monday evening, Clinton was saying that she "misspoke" on Bosnia, which, of course, she hadn't. The only credible explanation for her incredible remarks is that she lied and got caught. Frankly, if she really believes she and her then-teenage daughter had come under sniper fire that day in Tuzla - well, on second thought, keep the red phone away from that woman, please.
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