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