black…MYstory

In this picture, you see Hillary Clinton,in 1996, along with her daughter Chelsea, hugging a child in Bosnia. Now, as you can see, it seems like a pretty ordinary trip for the then-First Lady.

However, according to Clinton, this was the trip that Ms. Clinton referred in these terms:

“I remember landing under sniper fire. 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.”

Okay, I won’t be snippy and ask how everyone would be hanging around on a tarmack, out in the open, with children about if there all this sniper fire going on. I also won’t ask about why news accounts from that day make no mention of the First Lady being under fire in Bosnia. I won’t even ask how she was outed on this by none other than the comedian Sinbad, who accompanied her on this trip.

You see, this is part of the so-called “experience” that Clinton has over Obama. However, these “embellishments” (let’s be real and say that she’s just not telling the truth) are raising some questions about just what real experience she holds over Obama, at least in regards to foreign policy experience.

Now, one can’t diminish the role of a First Lady but, we also have to be real. Being First Lady meant that Hillary Clinton had no security clearance so, she wasn’t privy to the information that goes into shaping our foreign policy. She was there to be a ceremonial leader. Now, this is not to say that she did not travel extensively and that she did not meet with foreign dignitaries. She did. However, to say that somehow makes her a shaper of foreign policy is ridiculous. This is like saying that Laura Bush and Barbara Bush, before her, where key shapers of our foreign policy. Again, this role is important but, not in which policy decisions get made.

So, what experience does this leave her? Well, this does give her some life experience that is greater than Obama’s, she has a two-year lead on Obama in terms of U.S. Senate experience and, obviously, she is very politically-savvy. However, by no means, does this mean that the experience gap is as wide as she would like us to believe.

Now, that this had come to the surface, Clinton is hoping to nonchalantly dismiss this as a her having merely “misspoken”. Her spokesperson pointed to the following passage in her book to indicate that this was merely a misstatement:

“Due to reports of snipers in the hills around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with local children, though we did have time to meet them and their teachers and to learn how hard they had worked during the war to continue classes in any safe spot they could find,”

However, the problem is not that she was being honest then but, that she is being dishonest now. Had her recent telling of this story been allowed to stand, you might have been left with certain notions like:

1. Hillary Clinton was bravely risking her life on a diplomatic mission to Bosnia and
2. Bill Clinton must have not minded sending his wife and daughter into certain danger.

Okay, that last statement was my being facetious but, this kind of goes to the point of this story not really holding up.

By itself, this is not a deal-breaker but, it does lead me, and others, to ponder just what experience Hillary Clinton is really touting.

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