Spin Cycle

In this afternoon's conference call, the Clinton campaign discussed Hillary's claims that she came under sniper fire during an arrival in Bosnia as First Lady in March, 1996, and admitted -- a rare occurrence! -- that she made a mistake.

"On one occasion, she misspoke," said spokesman Howard Wolfson.

In a speech last week at George Washington, Hillary recalled, "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." Her attempts to emphasize the danger of the mission had previously been disputed by a co-traveller, comedian Sinbad, and last week a photograph and news footage of her arrival showed her kissing a little girl, not racing with her head down.

Wolfson said that Hillary had described the incident more accurately in her First Lady memoirs, which he quoted: "Due to reports of snipers in the hills around the air strip we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with local children though we did have time to meet with them and their teachers."

He said that was accurate:

"The news accounts at the time made clear that the area in which Sen. Clinton was landing was potential combat zone and was hazardous. In her book she writes of sniper fire in the hills and I think clearly meant to say that at the event of several days ago. This is something that has been written about in her book. It is something she has said many times in the same way and in one instance she said it slightly differently and her other accounts are certainly the accounts that she will be giving going forward."

There's a real difference between reports of sniper fire, and sniper fire. And a real difference between kissing a child and running to your car with your head down. It seems like more than phrasing it a little differently, but at least the campaign -- this time -- is acknowledging reality.

Update: It turns out that this was at least the second time Hillary gave an exaggerated story about Bosnia -- not, as Wolfson said, just one time.

The first came on March 1, when she unveiled her red phone ad and used Bosnia to contrast her in-the-field experience with Obama. NYT: "She evoked foreign battlefields, recalling a trip to Bosnia as first lady, when the welcoming ceremony 'had to be moved inside because of sniper fire.' "