With approximately 10 minutes notice to reporters, the Obama campaign held a conference call today with Pennysylvania Bosnia veterans to discuss Sen. Clinton’s previous remarks on Bosnia. The timing of the call is somewhat odd, especially in light of Sen. Obama’s statements regarding political distractions at ABC’s debate earlier this week.

Maj. Gen. Walter Stewart observed:

“Imagine the lack of moral authority she has now to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.”

He later added an observation about Sen. Clinton’s potential for leadership:

“So, let’s look at moral authority as the essential element of leadership. President George Bush, Sen. Clinton, Sen. McCain have squandered the moral authority of the United States of America and our ability to lead the free people’s of the world; and the oppressed peoples of the world towards freedom. Sen. Barack Obama displays the moral authority we need for a change in Washington D.C.”

Michael Kotyk began by saying:

“Sen. Clinton’s remarks are what I guess you would call a ‘whopper’ in the military terminology. It’s a breach of honor. And, it’s something that she has done continuously and even in regards to her support on NAFTA.”

As noted, this conference call is in sharp contrast to Obama’s remarks on Clinton and Bosnia during the debate earlier this week.

First, Obama suggested that the only reason his campaign initially criticized Sen. Clinton on the subject was because they were asked about it:

[CONTINUED...]

Which would you rather have as a candidate? Somebody people think is a elitist or somebody people think is a liar?

From Wash Post:

Clinton is viewed as “honest and trustworthy” by just 39 percent of Americans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compared with 52 percent in May 2006. Nearly six in 10 said in the new poll that she is not honest and trustworthy. And now, compared with Obama, Clinton has a deep trust deficit among Democrats, trailing him by 23 points as the more honest, an area on which she once led both Obama and John Edwards.

Among Democrats, 63 percent called her honest, down 18 points from 2006; among independents, her trust level has dropped 13 points, to 37 percent. Republicans held Clinton in low regard on this in the past (23 percent called her honest two years ago), but it is even lower now, at 16 percent. Majorities of men and women now say the phrase does not apply to Clinton; two years ago, narrow majorities of both did.

The biggest issue here is that Hillary’s campaign has said over and over again that she’s been vetted and scrubbed and nobody is going to find out anything new about her. But then there was the Bosnia story, and we found out she was perfectly willing to repeat a lie over and over again to make it seem like she was more qualified for the presidency than she actually was.

And then when confronted with the truth, we get an excuse that she was tired and she misspoke.

And then when confronted with videotape of a couple times when she said it during the morning…well, she just remembered incorrectly and she’s only human.

Long story short, voters ain’t buying Clinton’s explanations, and I think it’s perfectly within reason for Obama to start nailing her on this and saying it’s a reason why she’s unelectable in the Fall.

Why, oh why, is he bringing this up again…twice? And why is he repeating things that are so easily contradicted by VIDEO.

What is he thinking?

President Clinton, speaking in Boonville, Ind., revised history when he recounted his wife’s recent flap discussing a trip she took to Bosnia in 1996. President Clinton’s version had several inaccuracies and was slightly misleading.

President Clinton’s described his wife’s experience, saying, “There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it – what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y’all see all that. Oh, they blew it up. Let me just tell you.” Clinton then criticized the press, saying, “You woulda thought, you know, that she’d robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them, when they’re 60, they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11:00 at night, too.”

President Clinton’s version of the story has several inaccuracies. Hillary Clinton actually made the exaggerated comments numerous times, including at an event in Dubuque, Iowa on Dec. 29th, in Waco, TX on Feb. 29th, and twice — bright and early in the morning — on March 17.

Sen. Clinton did not apologize, as Mr. Clinton asserted. His wife did say she had made a mistake and said that she had misspoken when describing the Bosnia incident.

Sen. Clinton also wasn’t as quick with her apology as President Clinton may remember either. In fact, it took a week for her to eventually correct herself, first talking to the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board on March 24 and again the following day in Greensboro, N.C.

Obviously the Bosnia thing has hurt Hillary or Bill wouldn’t just bring it up randomly in a speech.

Still, I wonder if he watched this…

If anybody is curious why I’m refusing to support the Clintons this year (yes, the Clintons plural…they are one in the same to me now) it’s for reasons just like this nonsense.

The AP has more, Chuck Todd has morer , but ABC has the mostest.

And there it is in a nutshell.

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

“You know, I spoke out against Don Imus (who was fired from his radio and television shows after making racially insensitive remarks), saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that,” Clinton said. “I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving.”

This, however, is nonsense…

On saying last week that she landed under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996, when she was first lady:

“I was sleep-deprived, and I misspoke.”

As anybody who has seen the interview knows, she was very specific about her trip to Bosnia, even going so far as recalling the type of plane they were on and the evasive maneuver they took to land. She also made a point of saying, when openly questioned about her version of the events, that the way she was describing the events were exactly how it happened. Hardly the words of somebody who was having hazy, sleep deprived recollections.

Long story short, she should have just stuck with saying she misspoke, because saying she didn’t have enough sleep might make people wonder if she’s really ready for that 3 a.m. phone call.

Still, the Clinton camp has to be wincing about this…

Here’s what she had to say about it today to an editorial board…

“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 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.”

Honestly, I don’t think this is going to hurt her “experience” message because people have made up their mind whether or not a First Lady’s tenure should be considered realistic experience for the Oval Office.

Moving on…

The Washington Post fact-checked the initial story, gave it 4 Pinocchios and called it a “whopper”…which is just a nice way of saying it’s a lie. Now they’ve added an update from a current Clinton speechwriter who was on the trip with her.

Here’s the account:

Lissa Muscatine, who served as Hilary Clinton’s chief speechwriter in 1996 and accompanied her on the Bosnia trip, feels that I have failed to provide a full picture of what took place. She gave me her “vivid recollections” of the arrival in Tuzla, which I quote below:

I was on the plane with then First Lady Hillary Clinton for the trip from Germany into Bosnia in 1996. We were put on a C17– a plane capable of steep ascents and descents — precisely because we were flying into what was considered a combat zone. We were issued flak jackets for the final leg because of possible sniper fire near Tuzla. As an additional precaution, the First Lady and Chelsea were moved to the armored cockpit for the descent into Tuzla. We were told that a welcoming ceremony on the tarmac might be canceled because of sniper fire in the hills surrounding the air strip. From Tuzla, Hillary flew to two outposts in Bosnia with gunships escorting her helicopter.

Long story short, this still doesn’t really resolve what Hillary said in that video, and the Wash Post isn’t going to let her off the hook.

Also, maybe this is a silly question, but if Bosnia was so dangerous why did Chelsea come along for the trip? As Sinbad said, “What kind of president would say ‘Hey man, I can’t go ’cause I might get shot so I’m going to send my wife. Oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.”

Well put Sinbad…well put. :)

Wait until the very end of the video when she describes how there was no greeting ceremony and they had to run to their cars.

Listen, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt here because as First Lady she had to make a lot of trips and perhaps she’s remembering some other time. That’s certainly a possibility.

But if she only made one trip to Bosnia, then she should clarify the discrepancy between her statement and what exists on the video. Because there’s no doubt there was a greeting on the runway and it certainly doesn’t seem like the type of situation where they’d be running to their cars.