Obama Press Release: “Misspoke”? Clinton’s Prepared Remarks on Bosnia Join Similar Stretches on FMLA, SCHIP, and NAFTA

[Obama Campaign Press Release from March 24, 2008]

“Misspoke”? Clinton’s Prepared Remarks on Bosnia Join Similar Stretches on FMLA, SCHIP, and NAFTA

CHICAGO, IL—The Clinton campaign claimed today that Senator Clinton “misspoke” when she described a supposedly harrowing landing in Tuzla, Bosnia as First Lady in 1996—despite the fact that the claim appeared in her prepared remarks. The Tuzla story, now thoroughly debunked, joins a growing list of instances in which Senator Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policymaking.

On the campaign trail, Clinton has frequently touted her role in “helping to pass” the Family and Medical Leave Act, claimed to be “a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning,” and says she played a leadership role in the passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. All of these claims have been disproved, raising questions about Senator Clinton’s willingness to misrepresent her experience for political gain.

“Senator Clinton said that a planned welcoming ceremony was cancelled because they needed to avoid sniper fire, but news footage shows that she was met by a small child who read her a poem. Contrary to the latest spin from the Clinton campaign, when you make a false claim that’s in your prepared remarks, it’s not misspeaking, it’s misleading, and it’s part of a troubling pattern of Senator Clinton inflating her foreign policy experience,” said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Clinton’s account of the Bosnia landing, repeated most recently in a speech on March 17, earned four Pinocchios from the Washington Post’s Fact Checker, and has been discounted by several other accounts, both in the press and by the comedian Sinbad, who accompanied her on the supposedly death-defying trip.

Her claim to have opposed NAFTA has been disproved by the recent release of her White House schedules, which showed at least four meetings to advocate for its passage. And with respect to her claim to have by “[helped] to create the State Children’s Health Insurance Program,” the Boston Globe recently wrote:

“Hillary Clinton, who has frequently described herself on the campaign trail as playing a pivotal role in forging a children’s health insurance plan, had little to do with crafting the landmark legislation or ushering it through Congress, according to several lawmakers, staffers, and healthcare advocates involved in the issue.”

You can read the full article HERE.

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