How will Hillary’s Bosnia “whopper” play in the media?

March 21, 2008 - If you're Hillary Clinton and you've just been caught in a "whopper," the only thing to be grateful for is that it's Good Friday and people are distracted. How bad could this story be for her? When you tell the American public you faced gunfire, and it turns out all you really faced was a little girl with flowers - well, that's as bad as it gets.

When you dramatically say you made a journey that was too dangerous for the president, only to have it revealed that he made the same trip two months earlier - and that your teenaged daughter was by your side - that only makes it worse.

And there's video.

If they wanted to, the networks could juxtapose video of Sen. Clinton's dramatic recitation of the battle with this clip of that sweet eight-year-old on the tarmac with a bouquet. The question is: Will they want to?

Just this week Sen. Clinton said that she landed in Bosnia under "sniper fire", adding, "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 used to tell Iowa audiences, "We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady."

And her 16-year-old daughter?

This latest deception is documented in detail in the Washington Post by a reporter who was there. The paper awards her statements "four Pinocchios," a rating they reserve for political misstatements they describe as "whoppers."

Ed. Note: Whopper (Merriam-Webster): "An extravagant or monstrous lie."