Classic Clinton (Or: Hillary, Unwittingly, Cuts An Army Commercial)

Somebody get this girl a clock.

She needs to be working later in the morning.

She busied herself, invested tons of time and money into the 3AM, I'm-Ready-On-Day-(Or Night)-One, Commercial (and, oh, how the tables turned on that one), when she had a better one in the can all along.

Establishing Shot

Large, U.S. Military Plane landing in Bosnia

Medium Shot

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton emerging from Military Plane, surrounded by soldiers, their weapons drawn, bending low as rifle and gun fire fly overhead.

Hillary and Chelsea run, in a zigzag pattern, bullets ricocheting off the ground near her, just a few feet away.

Hillary and Chelsea, panting with fear, as well as out-of-breath, reach the safety of a military hanger and taking off their coats, we see both wearing bullet-proof vests.

Cut to Hillary today, standing in front of large screen, replaying her zigzagging run, wearing her trademark school-bus-yellow pant suit.

Hillary (speaking directly into camera)

I'm Hillary Clinton, and I do more before 9AM than most candidates do all day

Cut .. Print ... It's a wrap

It's also a crock!

It may be the grand movie, the blockbuster, playing in her mind (or, perhaps, the voices are whispering it to her), but it isn't what went down.

You would have thought, with all the PR geniuses in her campaign, that someone would have told her not to tell deer-hunting stories (since the campaign is in Pennsylvania, we'll go in-theme), when there's videotape that she's never splashed on deer piss and sat for days in a tree.

Instead of "Be All You Can Be", Hillary opted for "Spin All You Can Spin".

From Greg Sargent, over on TPM Election Central;

“I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn’t go, so send the First Lady. That’s where we went. 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.”

And she got caught - big time

Here's the CBS video that, whether they did this intentionally, or it's just how it played out, it be pretty funny, almost in the spirit of a Leonard Pinth Garnell riff.

CBS Exposes Hillary Clinton Bosnia Trip



And here's another take from Jedreport;

Coming soon to a superdelegate near you: Hillary in Tuzla.

It's an unbelievable tale of heroism, written and directed by Mark J. Penn.

The Baltimore Sun calls it a "whopper."

"Four Pinocchios!" says the Washington Post.

"Requires enormous suspension of disbelief" raves the Huffington Post

Hillary in Tuzla: The Tale of Bosnian Sniper Fire (TRAILER)

Now, being caught like a deer-in-the-headlights (PA Theme, again), we got the classic, and totally unbelievable, "I misspoke" line, before Camp Clinton locked itself down.

And, of course, the Obama Campaign weighed in on this tall tale.

"Rival Democrat Barack Obama's campaign quickly scoffed at the attempt to dismiss the fib, noting that the mistaken wording was included in the text of Clinton's speech"

So, what's a losing candidate, behind in almost every conceivable manner, caught in an embarrassing position that puts a spotlight on her credibility, to do?

If you're Hillary Clinton, first you add on to the "misspeak" thing, that you were "sleep-deprived", inferring the lack of slumber caused you to "misspeak".

Then, if you've been slapped around, as she has deservedly been, you PUNCH BACK, whipping out and serving up a fresh platter of Reverend Wright!

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a wide-ranging interview today with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporters and editors, said she would have left her church if her pastor made the sort of inflammatory remarks Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor made.

"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."

And it hasn't gone unnoticed.

From Steve Benen, over on The Carpetbagger Report;

"This may sound cynical, but my guess is that media interest in Clinton’s debunked Bosnia story had become too great a distraction. The controversy (and damaging videos) undermined Clinton on two fronts — credibility and national security experience — both of which are of critical significance.

So, how better to change the subject that to revive the Jeremiah Wright story with brand new criticism?

Actually, considering what her husband said last week, it's, more-or-less, Classic Clinton, a 1-2-punch, two kitchen sinks being hurled in the direction of Obama.

Has Hillary Clinton ever been to Darfur?

I can hardly wait for the narration of that trip.

I suppose she can use the sniper/gunfire theme again, but, perhaps, we'll get something like she rolled up her sleeves and lugged sacks of food off the plane.

Heck, if we go down the line of all her travel, she'll have to claim, after she "misspeaks" on all those, that she was in a coma.

We can only offer one prediction out of all this;

I suspect some lonely intern is tucked away in the Clinton Campaign, culling through videotape and matching it up against her speeches this very evening.

While another one hunts down more Reverend Wright video and quotes.


Bonus Hillary Threshold Links

Joe Gandelman/The Moderate Voice: Clinton Admits She “Misspoke” On Bosnia And Enters Credibility Danger Zone

Washington Post: Candidate Watch - Hillary's Balkan Adventures, Part II

NYT The Caucus: Clinton ‘Misspoke’ About Bosnia Trip, Campaign Says

Pam's House Blend: Why padding your 3 AM-ready resume is a really bad idea

Josh Marshall/TPM: That's Not Wright

Top Ten Cloves: Things Hillary Clinton and Howard Wolfson Think Barack Obama Can Do To Pass National Security Threshold