I'm shocked -- SHOCKED! Hillary seems dishonest?
It would appear that's the gist of this ABC News story which is in relation to her Bosnia-no-sniper story. They also point out that this is something she's been trying to outrun since she started her run for the presidency:
Sen. Hillary Clinton is dodging bullets. Not from Bosnian snipers but political opponents and pundits who have assailed her recent "misstatements" about a trip to Bosnia 12 years ago.
An apparent contradiction in statements Clinton made about a 1996 trip to Bosnia as first lady, which she claimed last week included the threat of sniper fire before later recanting, has raised the specter of dishonesty and untrustworthiness that has plagued her campaign from its beginning.
The backlash put Clinton on the defensive early this week, and not for the first time. Her campaign dealt with a perception of dishonesty long before the Bosnia trip became an issue.
In a USA Today/Gallup poll from March 16, 44 percent of Americans polled called Clinton "honest and trustworthy," compared to 67 percent and 63 percent respectively for Sen. John McCain, R–Ariz., and Sen. Barack Obama, D–Ill.
In an ABC News exit poll after the most recent primary March 11, half of Mississippi Democratic voters said Clinton was not honest and trustworthy. By contrast, 70 percent of voters found Obama honest and trustworthy votes.
Part of Clinton's perceived untrustworthiness no doubt stems from her association with her husband, former President Clinton, who was embroiled in a 1998 sex scandal with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
As the campaign season began heating up, even former supporters questioned the couple's honesty.
"Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling," one-time supporter and Hollywood mogul David Geffen said of the Clintons in The New York Times in February 2007.
When David Geffen made that remark, a lot of people nodded their heads. While it's true that a lot of politicians lie -- even with little white lies -- the Clintons do it with such ease that one would have to suspend disbelief in not agreeing with the fact that they seem to be pathological liars. I mean, this goes beyond Bill trying to weasel his zipper out of the Lewinsky affair. Hillary claimed that she wanted to join NASA, she wanted to join the Marines, she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, that she opposed NAFTA, and now we have the Bosnia fib.
Now some will look at these and say "It's not a big deal. It's not like she's lying about anything important." Sure. Right. But with this much fibbing going on, can we really trust her to be honest and trustworthy? Bill launched a cruise missile attack on Iraq in 1998, just days before the Lewinsky scandal was to hit news outlets. Did he really fire them because he was targeting WMD sites in Iraq, or did he do it to take the eyes off his sordid sex scandal? You have to ask yourselves these questions regarding the trustworthiness of people asking to be the president of the United States.
If we don't have the most honest person elected to that office, how are we ever going to trust them? And I'll remind readers that trust is earned. We don't just hand it over arbitrarily.
Publius II
Sen. Hillary Clinton is dodging bullets. Not from Bosnian snipers but political opponents and pundits who have assailed her recent "misstatements" about a trip to Bosnia 12 years ago.
An apparent contradiction in statements Clinton made about a 1996 trip to Bosnia as first lady, which she claimed last week included the threat of sniper fire before later recanting, has raised the specter of dishonesty and untrustworthiness that has plagued her campaign from its beginning.
The backlash put Clinton on the defensive early this week, and not for the first time. Her campaign dealt with a perception of dishonesty long before the Bosnia trip became an issue.
In a USA Today/Gallup poll from March 16, 44 percent of Americans polled called Clinton "honest and trustworthy," compared to 67 percent and 63 percent respectively for Sen. John McCain, R–Ariz., and Sen. Barack Obama, D–Ill.
In an ABC News exit poll after the most recent primary March 11, half of Mississippi Democratic voters said Clinton was not honest and trustworthy. By contrast, 70 percent of voters found Obama honest and trustworthy votes.
Part of Clinton's perceived untrustworthiness no doubt stems from her association with her husband, former President Clinton, who was embroiled in a 1998 sex scandal with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
As the campaign season began heating up, even former supporters questioned the couple's honesty.
"Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling," one-time supporter and Hollywood mogul David Geffen said of the Clintons in The New York Times in February 2007.
When David Geffen made that remark, a lot of people nodded their heads. While it's true that a lot of politicians lie -- even with little white lies -- the Clintons do it with such ease that one would have to suspend disbelief in not agreeing with the fact that they seem to be pathological liars. I mean, this goes beyond Bill trying to weasel his zipper out of the Lewinsky affair. Hillary claimed that she wanted to join NASA, she wanted to join the Marines, she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, that she opposed NAFTA, and now we have the Bosnia fib.
Now some will look at these and say "It's not a big deal. It's not like she's lying about anything important." Sure. Right. But with this much fibbing going on, can we really trust her to be honest and trustworthy? Bill launched a cruise missile attack on Iraq in 1998, just days before the Lewinsky scandal was to hit news outlets. Did he really fire them because he was targeting WMD sites in Iraq, or did he do it to take the eyes off his sordid sex scandal? You have to ask yourselves these questions regarding the trustworthiness of people asking to be the president of the United States.
If we don't have the most honest person elected to that office, how are we ever going to trust them? And I'll remind readers that trust is earned. We don't just hand it over arbitrarily.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 5:05 PM
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