A Slip Of The Tongue

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton misspoke the other day in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when she told the assembled politicians at the Stormont that she had stayed at the bomb damaged Europa Hotel when she and Bill were last in Belfast. Just a slip of the tongue from a slip of a girl. It was quickly pointed out that the Europa Hotel had last been bombed two years before she and Bill had checked in. Now we all know memory can be faulty. Sometimes we honestly believe we were in a certain place at a certain time, and even have vivid memories of being there, even though it may not be at all true. Memories are tricky. And if this were the first of her mistaken memories we could overlook it, but it is only one in a long list of misspoken memories. There was the time in Bosnia when she claimed she came under sniper fire when her plane landed. “I remember landing under sniper fire,” she said. “There was supposed to be some kind of greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicle to get to our base.” Alas, newsreels of the event showed her smiling as a little girl handed her a bouquet of flowers as she stepped off the plane. No snipers. But then, memories are tricky. Then there was the time she claimed she had been named for the famous mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary. The problem was Edmund Hillary did not become famous until 1953 when he became the first man to climb Mt. Everest, and Hillary was born in 1947, six years before anyone had ever heard of Edmund Hillary. Can’t wait for her memoirs.    

 

 

Through shot and shell

She lived to tell

Of her great escape

From sniper blows

And goodness knows

‘Bout every other scrape

From Agincourt

To prairie fort

She’s been there and done that

On Pelelieu

I’m telling you

You’ve got to tip your hat

On landing strips

On foreign trips

She’s taken triple A

An ack-ack gun

Is simply fun

She grins ‘cause she’s okay

Our Sec of State

By God she’s great

She goes where danger gleams

With every breath

She laughs at death

If only in her dreams