Politicians lie. That’s a fact. They lie to get elected and to stay in power. Some lie about other countries so they can justify invading them. Others lie so they can portray themselves as experienced leaders.
Hillary Clinton is a great example here. Let’s take a look at a few of the recent lies in her campaign to be Democratic presidential candidate.
Darfur
Bill and Chelsea Clinton have been touting Hillary Clinton’s commitment to Africa on the campaign trail by telling voters that “Hillary was the first U.S. Senator to call Darfur genocide.”
Chelsea talked about her mother’s record on Darfur to Stanford University students, saying that she was “really proud that...mom was the first Democratic senator to call Darfur conflict genocide in May of 2004, and put a lot of pressure on the Bush administration to recognize it as genocide.”
As it turned out, the first senators who actually called Darfur genocide were Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and Sam Brownback, R-Kansas.
Hillary Clinton’s first press statement referring to Darfur as “genocide” wasn’t until March 16, 2006.
Some will say Hillary did not lieabout Darfur, it was Bill and Chelsea. Yes, but this was a part of her campaign strategy and she never distanced herself from their false statements.
Rwanda
When it comes to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Bill Clinton claims that Hillary urged him to intervene but he and his administration refused.
The Chicago Tribune writes that, “despite lengthy memoirs by both Clintons and former Secretary of State and UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright, any advice she gave on Rwanda had not been mentioned until her presidential campaign.”
Obsidian Wings blog notes that “military intervention was not considered as an option in the case of Rwanda, never even debated, which means that any advocacy [if any] Hillary did engage in must have been pretty ineffective… She not only failed to convince her husband to send troops, but also failed to convince him, for instance, not to advocate the withdrawal of most of the UN peacekeepers” from Rwanda in the midst of the genocide.
It was understandable that the American government wouldn’t send the troops to Rwanda shortly after what happened in Somalia. But all they had to do was to provide equipment to the UN troops from African countries ready to go to Rwanda and save a few hundred thousand civilians from being slaughtered.
Instead of lending military equipment to the UN (to whom the United States owed hundreds of millions of dollars in membership fees at the time), the US government decided to lease it for $15 million. The United Nations, fully dependent on its negligent members to pay for missions, did not have the money. The 5,500 additional troops never arrived in Rwanda to intervene.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Tony Iovino
To my grave disappointment, Hillary and her disbarred hubby have been lying with less and less style as their campaign slips into panic.
I once wrote :
In my lifetime I've had the privilege of watching Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Michael Jordan play basketball, Wayne Gretzky play hockey, Muhammed Ali box, Tom Seaver pitch, Tiger Woods golf.
And I've heard the Clintons lie.
Greatness comes in many forms.
I guess, like aging boxers who stay in the ring after their skills are gone, the Clintons are sliding into pugsville.
It's so sad.
2 - Bennett
Great comment Tony! Kudos!!!
3 - bliffle
Good article. Good response, Tony.
Looks like the wheels are coming off the Clinton Campaign Machine.
4 - Dave Nalle
Are you sure that's you, Bliffle? You seem to have switched sides.
Dave
5 - Mr. Unite Us
Clinton also lied about what Obama actually said about Ronald Reagan.
Clinton even lied for years about being named after Sir Edmund Hilary.
6 - Lee Richards
Maybe it's us. After all, we didn't know what the meaning of "is" is, so maybe we just don't understand what "landing under sniper fire" really means to a Clinton.
7 - JustOneMan
There was sniper fire...it was bill shooting at her!!
8 - Gabriel Okon
No more lying in the campaign. If you cannot say the truth, give up.
9 - JustOneMan
Or saying as Obama has.."I was for the racists Rev. Wright before I was against him, but Ill always support him."
JOM
10 - REMF
^ JOM, here's another great saying;
"Obama is the best the Dumbocrats have had in years..and in fact if it comes down to him and "The Angry Old White Man" McCain -- I WILL BE VOTING FOR OBAMA...."
11 - JustOneMan
"I was against the affirmative action cappuccino candidate, before i was for him, but after I was against him" JOM
12 - Lumpy
More Clinton lies surfaced today when she had to admit that she'd been lying for years about landing in Bosnia in a plane that was under enemy fire. Naver happened.
I'd call her condition pathological.
13 - Dan
An odd thing about the pathological. In many cases they'd lie when the truth would do just as good.
Makes Dick Morris more credible.
Although, she could have been the target of a sniper, with a silencer, who missed, and now she's forced to own a slipped truth that seems like a lie because the CIA doesn't want her to expose a botched security detail.
14 - REMF
"More Clinton lies surfaced today when she had to admit that she'd been lying for years about landing in Bosnia in a plane that was under enemy fire. Naver happened."
- Lumpy
And yet she still got closer to combat than many of the phony chickenhawks, like Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, Laura Ingram and Dick Cheney.
15 - JustOneMan
Where did Obama serve??
16 - REMF
^ Obama has always been against the invasion and occupation of Iraq...unlike the chickenhawks.
17 - Dan Miller
My guess is that in any current word association game, the word most likely to be associated with the Democrat party would "Implode."
"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." Yes, we know.
Senator Clinton didn't even acknowledge until later today that she actually "misspoke," let alone lied. She then blamed it on being only human and on sleep deprivation.
Of course Senator Clinton lied. And cows give milk, and pork comes from pigs. Her attempts to get around the fact that she lied, willfully, knowingly and to enhance her resume' to help her prospects of nomination, just don't wash.
That disturbs me.
What disturb me even more, however, are some of the blog responses (elsewhere, not here so far) to the context. They basically fall into two categories:
1. The people who are complaining are wicked males, who can't abide the possibility of a woman becoming president.
2. Senator Clinton has no monopoly on untruth. Others are just as bad if not worse, particularly Senator Obama.
Point one is, I think absurd. It has not been my experience that women are any more tolerant of lies than men; it is not necessary to be a male chauvinist pig to be offended by blatant lies.
Point two perhaps has more substance, but not much. Senator Obama clearly has his problems. However, I think that his recent race speech was pretty good. It didn't completely lay to rest for me the issues concerning his association with the Reverend Mr. Wright, but it was at least an honest, thoughtful attempt and came pretty close to the mark.
A "dream ticket," or "nightmare ticket," with Senator Clinton as the presidential candidate and Senator Obama as the vice presidential candidate, or vice versa, appears to have gone down in flames, which is probably a good thing. If so, it may well be the only good thing to have emerged from the current debacle. Unless, of course, one would like Senator McCain to become President McCain, a question with which I intend to grapple latter, during the general election process.
Dan Miller
18 - Dr Dreadful
Where did Obama serve??
Perhaps we should support Pete Sampras for President. He's served all over the world.
19 - Clavos
...or any waiter or waitress...
20 - JustOneMan
Where did Obama serve besides the tennis balls he served at the elite private schools he attended while experience the "pain, hoplessness and despair of his fellow Afrikan Americans and not the Martinis he served to his buddy Rezko while Rezko was a slum lord ripping off Obama's own Afrikan America constituents?
Where did Obama serve?
JOM
21 - Clavos
"Hi, I'm Hillary and I'll be your server tonight."
22 - Dr Dreadful
JOM, I suppose I shouldn't expect any better from you, but this blatant making up of slurs and lies about Obama has to be called out.
To set the record straight: Obama did not serve martinis to Tony Rezko while the latter ripped off his tenants.
They were margaritas.
23 - JustOneMan
I stand corrected!
24 - JustOneMan
Well ill admit Obama did serve the Americam people a big pile of shit in his " I have a scheme speech" by making excuses for himself and his good buddy Rev Wright the racist ...
JOM
25 - Bennett
JOM, Nowhere in his sermons did Rev. Write say that people of African decent were in any way superior to any other ethnic group.
Or that any other ethnic group was inferior, or deserved punishment or violence perpetrated against it.
He simply stated that wrongs have been done, and that there are still problems in America that need addressing.
How is that racist?