Clinton remarks hit as ‘misleading’

Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign yesterday challenged rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s explanation that she “misspoke” when she said she braved sniper fire during a 1996 Bosnia trip — saying the former first lady has a “troubling” penchant for inflating her foreign-policy credentials.

“When you make a false claim that’s in your prepared remarks, it’s not misspeaking — it’s misleading,” Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

The Obama campaign pointed to other disputed items on Mrs. Clinton’s foreign-policy resume, including her claims that as first lady she played a prominent role in brokering peace in Northern Ireland and negotiating with Macedonia to accept Kosovo refugees.

Senior U.S. diplomats have credited Mrs. Clinton, of New York, with a minor but helpful role appealing to women in Northern Ireland, and Macedonia reportedly agreed to let in refugees the day before Mrs. Clinton arrived in the country.

The Clinton campaign responded by criticizing Mr. Obama, of Illinois, for repeatedly exaggerating his record in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

“Senator Obama’s campaign is based on words — not a record of deeds — and if those words aren’t backed up by facts, there’s not much else left,” Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said.

The list of Mr. Obama’s exaggerations included his calling himself a professor of constitutional law when he was a senior lecturer and claiming credit for passing health care legislation as an Illinois state senator when the bill only created a legislative task force.

Questions about Mrs. Clinton’s account of the Bosnian trip have pestered her for weeks.

In December, Mrs. Clinton recalled a “corkscrew landing” at the Tuzla airport amid a threat of sniper fire from surrounding hills. That description was contradicted in a Washington Post article recently by comedian Sinbad, who was on the trip as part of a USO show.

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But Mrs. Clinton expanded the story Monday, saying, “I remember landing 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.”

CBS News video footage showed Mrs. Clinton and her daughter, smiling and waving to the crowd, as they walked off the plane and across the tarmac.

“We all make mistakes,” she told reporters in Greensburg, Pa., where she campaigned for the state’s April 22 primary. “Lighten up. … I say millions of words every week, and there is a lot of room for error when you are talking as much as I am.”

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