Your link in to an April 2008 story in FP about two supposed "gaffes" by Hillary - one in which she repeated a joke that when the world comes to an end, it will be the cockroaches and New Zealand PM Helen Clark who would survive; the other, telling people her mother had named her after Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealander who became the first man to scale Everest in 1953 -- five years after Hillary's birth.

I remember the derision and hilarity that greeted these "gaffes" a year ago. The former was a joking and complimentary reference to Clark's toughness, but like most things Hillary said during the campaign, it was misconstrued as something else. The Sir Edmund namesake story was presented as merely the latest in a long series of "lies" to which this deceitful, pathological woman (Hillary) had become subject in her power-grabbing, monomaniacal "say-or-do-anything" quest to become President. Do you remembering all the brou-ha-ha over her remarks about dodging bullets at the Tuzla airport? I thought we'd never hear the end of it from Keith Olbermann & company over there at MSNBC. And for the record, maybe she wasn't under fireupon landing at Tuzla, but sniper shots had been reported in the hills behind the airport several days earlier, and later that day, when she landed by helicopter at several off-base outposts, she wore a flak jacket and was hustled off the tarmac by an escort of armed and camoflaged servicemen. But that was not the videotaped played and replayed endlessly on television. Meanwhile, Obama was telling us all with a straight face that he had never once, in 20 years, heard Rev. Wright ever deliver even one of his many incendiary anti-white sermons, and everyone in the media and blogosphere nodded soberly and didn't challenge him, because of course the One would never lie for the sake of some political advantage, now would he?

As for the Sir Edmund flap, while it is true that at the time of Hillary Rodham's birth in 1947, he was making his living as a beekeeper, he was also climbing mountains in New Zealand, then in the Alps, and finally in the Himalayas, where he climbed 11 different peaks of over 20,000 feet. In other words, he was an elite mountain climber whose name may have been known to Mrs. Rodham in the years before he began scaling Everest in 1951, and finally reached the summit in 1953. But really, so what if Hillary's mother told a little white lie? Next to the whoppers for which our Vice-President has been known over the years, this is chicken feed. What? You haven't heard about Biden's lies? Oh, I forgot...the ethical double standard.

Carolyn-Rodham,

Write a book about Hillary, and I will buy it! :-)

Carolyn-Rodham: I love you. <3

Ever since that Sir Edmund Hillary flap began - waaaay back, I have been arguing that her mother probably knew of him before he summited Everest. As you point out, even if that was not the source of her name, so what? From birth she has been Hillary Diane Rodham and later added Clinton. It's more that we can say for Barry Soetoro or whatever HIS name is!

BTW - Has anybody got that Helen Clark remark recorded? It doesn't sound like Hillary's sense of humor at all to me. I never hear her joke at another's expense - and especially another woman. It sounds like an outright lie - like so much else.

mistake when it came to that sniper story. She's human just like we all are. Still she's gotten unfair criticism over the years. I admire how she handles it- never playing the victim or complaining about it. It just goes with the territory of being in the public eye. I bet she's looking forward to retiring in a few years, assuming Pres Obama doesn't ask her to stay if he has a 2nd term, so she'll finally get some well deserved privacy.

and Rev Wright have to do with my comment

in the NY Times or anywhere else. I'm well aware of Hillary Clinton's biography and accomplishments. I simply stated that Hillary said she was tired at the time when she was recounting the sniperfire story and could have told the story in a way she didn't intend to. There's nothing wrong with that but when you're in a heated political campaign things get blown out of proportion. As for the press, they do play favorites. I learned that the hard way during the 2000 campaign. The coverage vp Gore received was terrible while GW Bush was given a pass. I saw similar things happen to HRC in 08. It's sad that we don't have a truly objective press in this country. There is more alternative media out there but that still doesn't excuse bad journalism from the mainstream press.

Texasgal, apologies! I think it may have seemed like
the snarky tone of my last post was
Directed at you - not at all! It was directed at the media, for jumping all over Hillary's misstatements while giving Obama a free pass. But you're quite right- she stepped up to the plate and acknowledged her mistake. However, I think in politics, you're obliged to keep things simple. A soundbite doesn't allow for the kind of lengthy defense I tried to offer on her behalf above. Obama was offered full coverage of his speech on race on all the major networks to set the record straight about Rev. Wright, with comparisons made to Lincoln before he had uttered a single word.
The deck was stacked against her.