Posted by
Michael Goodell on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 3:45:16 PM
After a week of watching Barack Obama struggle to come to grips with his Uncle Jeremiah’s endearing tendency to spew racist invective, Team Billary decided it was time to jump back into the fray. First Bill borrowed a page from the conservative talk radio play book by suggesting that the Junior Senator from Illinois hates America. Not to be outdone, Hillary then started reminiscing about her time under fire in Bosnia.
"I remember landing under sniper fire," she coolly recounted. "There was supposed to be some kind of s greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
It was an impressive tale, certainly proof that Hillary, unlike her callow opponent, has what it takes to command troops in time of war. The only problem with it was it wasn’t true. A CBS news report demonstrates a complete lack of danger at the airport, where Hillary, and her high-powered foreign policy team which included the comedian Sinbad, and Global Warming Cassandra Sheryl Crow, exchanges greetings and hugs with Bosnian children.
You can watch the video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=8BfNqhV5hg4
Although this might seem like an embarrassing moment for the scrappy underdog, it’s entirely possible that it may work out to her advantage. Hillary has repeatedly cited her Bosnian vacation as the kind of hands-on experience she will bring to the White House, where she will be ready to lead from Day One, unlike her opponent, who will be too busy reading poetry and composing the sort of flowery speeches which have rendered him unfit for higher office. Even though the junket turns out to have been more of a USO entertainment tour than a significant mission, her memory of how it went down is much more important that the actual circumstances.
Reading her description I was struck by its similarity to a scene from "A Clear and Present Danger." In the film, based on the Tom Clancy novel, Jack Ryan, played by Harrison Ford, risks life, limb and pension to stop an illegal and unsanctioned insertion of American forces into a South American country. Arriving at the airport, Ryan is told by a DEA official to keep moving, and keep his head down. "You don’t want to be a target," he is told.
Later on the motorcade is ambushed by drug lords, and most of the secret service agents and FBI officials are blown to bits by rocket launched grenades. Fortunately, Jack Ryan is on hand to orchestrate their escape. No doubt Hillary will be embellishing her recollections to include this firefight in future speeches.
Rather than being just the latest example of Team Billary’s, shall we say, awkward relationship with veracity, Hillary’s identifying with Jack Ryan might produce dividends. In Clancy’s long-winded, multi-volume biography of the intrepid CIA analyst, Ryan eventually ascends to the White House after a Japanese terrorist flies a hijacked 747 into the Capital Building during a State of the Union address, which manages to kill everyone in the chain of command other than Ryan.
Given the recent trajectory of her campaign, Hillary might need such a stroke of luck to take possession of her birthright. It’s possible that channeling Jack Ryan is an indication of her thinking on the matter. Still, if she turns into the kind of President Jack Ryan proved to be, American foreign policy, and the entire world will be in very good hands, indeed.