Spin Cycle

Yesterday afternoon, Sen. Clinton's spokesman said she may have misspoken when she claimed last week that she landed under sniper fire and raced to her car during a 1996 trip to Bosnia -- a claim that was contradicted by film that showed her walking calmly, with no sniper bullets, and hugging a young girl with Chelsea by her side.

Apparently, the Philadelphia Daily News asked Hillary herself about it at an ed board meeting later, and Clinton said the reference to actual sniper fire was a "misstatement" but argued that the photographed hug of the child was just a brief detour from a hustle to her car. She called the whole flap a "minor blip."

Here's what she said in a speech at GWU on March 17, the second time she made similary assertions: "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."

Here's what she said to the Philly Daily News:

"Now let me tell you what I can remember, OK -- because what I was told was that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire. 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. I was also told that the greeting ceremony had been moved away from the tarmac but that there was this 8-year-old girl and, I can't, I can't rush by her, I've got to at least greet her -- so I made a -- I took her stuff and then I left. Now that's my memory of it."

And, asked if it raised questions about her credibility:

"No, 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."

People make inadvertent mistakes, but two in the same brief passage, both of which make you seem braver and pluckier than you actually were? Repeated on two different occasions, and then suddenly remembered more accurately when people find photos and film that prove what you said wasn't true?

It's easy to say, "I misspoke." Maybe the truth is, "I exagerrated because it made me sound more impressive." Here's film of the arrival -- with no bulletproof vests obvious. Judge for yourself: