Thinking about Lies and Misstatements

What is that old adage about politicians? You know that they are lying when their lips are moving. Knowing this to be sadly true, why would I bristle at Senator Clinton's response to the revelation that she fabricated the Tuzla, Bosnia tarmac experience? I suppose what gets me most is that it was not a misstatement. An example of misspeaking would be for her to say that she landed in Sarajevo instead of Tuzla. But to "clearly" remember being under fire and not participating in a welcoming ceremony that was in fact filmed by a network news camera is pretty clearly a lie. The good Senator made statements in explanation such as that she was tired from the campaign or that she had been to 80 countries and was mixed up. She said that she is human and made a mistake. I wonder how many of the 80 trips involved running for cover from sniper fire. Surely not too many (if any). One could reason that it wouldn't be too difficult to keep incidents such as she described straight in the mind.

"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 misstatement," she said.

That is pretty profound! You know?

First Lady Laura Bush visited my classroom in February of 2004. The steps that were taken for her security in a domestic setting were impressive. Every part of the visit was planned in advance to minimize any possible risk to the First Lady. My classroom was scoured by security personnel. The police and Secret Service presence was massive...and she was visiting a High School in Arkansas, not a hot zone in a war-torn country. If the military had even the slightest concern that Mrs. Clinton would be in danger, my impression, based on experience with Mrs. Bush, is that they would not have allowed her to be in the line of fire. As I write, several figures from the military are expressing outrage about Senator Clinton's misstatement. Naturally, the implication of her story is that the military failed to secure the airport at Tuzla. When the potential commander-in-chief sullies the reputations of the officers in charge so easily, that could make for a tense relationship.

Enough rambling from me. I am disappointed that she came to the point to where she told the Bosnia story so many times that she actually believes it. It would still be told from stop to campaign stop if the evidence of her lack of veracity were not preserved on CBS video. I hope that the old adage about lying politicians is a lie, and that, my friends, is the truth.