Word of the Day: 'Misspoke'
Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 11:03 AM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC’s Ron Allen
Here's my nominee for the word of the day -- if such a thing exists. It came from Hillary Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson yesterday, responding to questions about the senator's description of landing, "under sniper fire," at the Tuzla, Bosnia, airport while First Lady, as the war was winding down, back in 1996.
After citing numerous articles from the time, referring to the danger, and how unusual it was for a first lady to travel to such a war-torn place, Team Clinton conceded she "misspoke" about the sniper fire. And running with, "our heads down," from the airport.
Clinton herself told the editorial boards of the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer that she “misspoke.” Further clarifying her comments, she said the pilot aboard her aircraft had warned there was sniper fire in the area at the time when she was arriving in Tuzla.
VIDEO: NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports on Hillary Clinton misspeaking about being under fire during a 1996 trip to Bosnia.
“[W]hat I was told was that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire,” she said. “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."
She added later, "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."
So why does this matter? Because Clinton has been accused of inflating her national security credentials to prove she has "passed the Commander-In-Chief test. That's the "test" that exists somewhere in the minds of her campaign staff, a test Sen. Barack Obama has not passed, according to Team Clinton, even though by every measure, except electoral votes won, he's winning the race.
Would you think some of the millions who've voted for him think he's fit to be Commander-In-Chief? Most Americans know that's part of the president's job. How can they be wrong and Clinton's advisors be right?
Anyway, back to Bosnia where sniper fire was ringing out. Or not. Believe me, if you've ever been in a place where there is real sniper fire, it’s unforgettable. And indeed, you might misspeak trying to describe the seemingly random horror of it.
Thinking back to those days, Sarajevo was notorious for its sniper alleys during the lengthy Serb siege of the city, down the road from the airport, along the route from the Holiday Inn to the TV station where the western journalists all worked, coming over Mt. Igman, concealed by the early dawn morning fog, barreling down a rutted road into the city in range of Serb positions on the opposite hillsides. In fact, at times, broad stretches of that beautiful city were no-go zones.
As for Tuzla, for the most part, I recall it being a much calmer place. None of that is to say that Sen. Clinton didn't take some risks by traveling there. Even after a strong contingent of western troops arrived, Bosnia was still a bit of a mess. And, as her team points out, Obama probably doesn't have very many, if any, similar experiences to talk about. But, apparently embellishing a story, or "misspeaking" about it, will only lead to more questions about what Clinton really did when she was in places like Bosnia.
For example, did she really help bring peace to Northern Ireland, as she claims in her speeches? I don't recall that being a headline-grabbing story at the time. You would think it would have been all over the American, British and Irish press. "First Lady solves the Troubles." Or “helps” solve.
On her campaign plane recently, Clinton said she made more trips to Northern Ireland than her husband. But was she a key player, as we know former Senator George Mitchell was, in hammering out the Good Friday peace accords in the late 90s?
And lastly, what about her claim of helping to open the Kosovo-Macedonian border for refugees fleeing that conflict? Again, that wasn't a big story at the time. Yes, it’s true a lot of diplomacy goes on behind the scenes. And yes, no one is claiming Clinton did these things single handedly.
Millions of voters believe Clinton is the best candidate to become this nation's leader during a time of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her "Commander-In-Chief test." She has traveled the world, as first lady and as a senator from New York. Though often it seems she was carrying out the traditional role of first lady back then. That usually has nothing to do with dodging sniper fire, opening borders and ending decades old intractable conflicts.
Having spent a considerable amount of time in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Macedonia and many more than my fair share of places like those, and a lot of it during the Clinton administration, I guess it just catches your attention when someone "misspeaks" about what really might or might not have happened.
Ron Allen was a foreign correspondent based in London from 1992 thru 2003 and extensively covered the events discussed in this story.
