Obama Campaign: Sen. Clinton’s Remarks On Bosnia Were A Breach Of Honor

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 (ret.) 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 peoples 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:

OBAMA: Well, look, I think that Senator Clinton has a strong record to run on. She wouldn’t be here if she didn’t.

And, you know, I haven’t commented on the issue of Bosnia. You know, I…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Your campaign has.

OBAMA: Of course. But the — because we’re asked about it.

Fair enough, but the issue is pretty old now.  No one asked them to hold an entire conference call on it today.  So, I’m not entirely sure how today’s call fits with these statements by Sen. Obama.  In the same response, Sen. Obama added (emphasis added):

But, look, the fact of the matter is, is that both of us are working as hard as we can to make sure that we’re delivering a message to the American people about what we would do as president. Sometimes that message is going to be imperfectly delivered because we are recorded every minute of every day.

And I think Senator Clinton deserves the right to make some errors once in a while. Obviously, I make some as well.

I think what’s important is to make sure that we don’t get so obsessed with gaffes that we lose sight of the fact that this is a defining moment in our history. We are going to be tackling some of the biggest issues that any president has dealt with in the last 40 years.

Our economy is teetering not just on the edge of recession but potentially worse. Our foreign policy is in a shambles. We are involved in two wars. People’s incomes have not gone up, and their costs have. And we’re seeing greater income inequality now than any time since the 1920s.

In those circumstances, for us to be obsessed with this — these kinds of errors I think is a mistake. And that’s not what our campaign has been about.

Does this mean that today’s call, which focused entirely on Clinton’s Bosnia remarks, was a mistake?

I understand the political reasons why the campaign held the call today.  But, it strikes me as somewhat unnecessary and inconsistent for them to have done so.  And, it will almost certainly open them up to unnecessary scrutiny from the press.