Published: March 30, 2008 12:14 am      

Candidates need to learn humility and tell the truth

College 201

It’s unfortunate, but I think we can all agree that when we listen to politicians talk, everything they say must be passed through our own personal filter and we must understand that what we’re hearing in all likelihood contains at least one lie, even if it’s a minor one. That’s a disturbing thing to have to come to grips with, but that’s our society for you.

That being said, politicians at the same time have to realize that the general public knows it could be getting lied to and will probably be on the lookout for any such fibs or attempts at misinformation. But there’s someone else paying attention too, the media. That’s the dangerous party, the group that can really launch a firestorm against you if something turns out to be false.

That’s exactly what happened to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton this past week, as CBS exposed some very boldfaced lies the politician made about a 1996 trip to Bosnia. Clinton was, of course, the first lady at the time and the trip was supposed to be a morale-booster for US troops keeping the peace after Bosnia’s civil war. In a press conference, Mrs. Clinton claimed that she remembered arriving at Bosnia’s Tuzla airbase “under sniper fire.”

“There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base,” Clinton said.

CBS soon produced footage from reporters who accompanied Mrs. Clinton on that trip, and it showed nothing even close to that claim. Clinton was greeted by officials at the airport, all wearing smiles, and she leisurely walked across the runway, even taking time to listen to a young girl recite a poem. A far cry from running with your hands over your head.

So what’s the point? She lied, that’s not a big surprise, politicians lie all the time. However, when confronted about the inaccuracy, Mrs. Clinton had the audacity to say, “So I made a mistake. That happens. It shows I’m human, which for some people is a revelation.”

Apparently, she needs to be informed that there is a difference between making a mistake and telling a flat-out lie. I can guarantee you that she would know whether or not she had to sprint to her car because of sniper fire. That’s just something you do not forget. But if we were to give her the benefit of the doubt and accept that she actually did have a memory lapse causing her to forget such a seemingly simple detail, then maybe that’s not the kind of person we want running our country. I mean poor John McCain gets “he’s old and senile” jokes all the time, but Mrs. Clinton is basically asking us to believe that she is such.

What it amounts to is another desperate attempt by the Clinton campaign to drum up support when it’s looking more and more like Barrack Obama has the edge and will get the nomination for November’s general election. Desperate for us to believe that she has great foreign policy experience and can deal with conflict, her camp concocted a ridiculous story of harrowing escape and near death. Too bad it was all fiction.

I don’t know what necessarily angered me the most with this story, the fact that she lied, or the fact that she was so smug and sarcastic when making her retort. Just accept that you lied and apologize for doing so. You did more than “make a mistake,” you deliberately made up a falsity to make yourself look better. It backfired, and quite frankly I’m glad it did. Nothing regarding her ability to be president, but Hillary Clinton needs to come down off her high horse a little bit, stop giving off that ridiculous smirk she wears when somebody is addressing her, and learn a little humility.

Hopefully this was the first step towards making that happen.

————

Robert Rich is a sophomore journalism major at the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from Westwood High School in 2006. He can be reached via e-mail at robert.rich@mail.utexas.edu