That depends on what the meaning of the words "sniper fire" is

Courtesy of Ben Smith's blog at Politico, in an absolutely shocking turn of events, it turns out a Clinton told a lie. I'm not sure where this ranks in relation to the "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," but HRC is guilty of a little embellishment.

Earlier this afternoon, Sen. Hillary Clinton came to the Daily News and Inquirer building here in Philadelphia -- where she's seeklng the Daily News editorial board endorsement -- and I had a chance to ask her about a controversy that's increasingly dogged her campaign the last few days: Whether she misrepresented the danger of her March 1996 trip to a U.S. military base in Bosnia in an effort to boost her foreign policy credentials.

Clinton acknowleged today for the first time that it was a "misstatement" when she said in a major prepared foreign policy speech last week that "I remember landing under sniper fire" but also tried to brush off the entire issue as "a minor blip." She also gave a revised account of her airplane landing and her tarmac greeting at the Tuzla Air Force base 12 years ago -- seeking to explain a picture re-published this weekend in the Washington Post showing her and daughter Chelsea calmly greeting an 8-year-old girl.

When the telephone at the White House rings at 3 a.m., who's going to bullshit the most?

In the week since that remark, whicj echoed other recent statements about her trip, several journalists - most notably Michael Dobbs of the Washington Post -- have found holes in what Sen. Clinton said. In particular, Dobbs said none of more than 100 contemporaneous accounts mentioned sniper fire and that the Associated Press reporter on the trip had no recollection of any weapons fire. Dobbs also reported that CBS news footage shows the then-First Lady walking calmly from the C-17 transport plane as well as a number of dignitaries -- in addition to the 8-year-old Emina Bicakcic, a Muslim girl who read a poem in English -- waiting there.

Hey when you're running against a man who spent five and a half years as a POW in Vietnam, any effort to make it seem like you were in some dangerous foreign experience has to be a plus. Of course it's a given that in order for any sizable impact to be had, it helps when there's some validity to your claims.