Shooting Blanks: Hillary Under Fire

I've had a gun pointed at me on two occasions by people I thought might actually pull the trigger. I can tell you exactly when and where it happened because the circumstances are crystal clear in my memory, unlike a vast majority of other events.

Fortunately, I've never been shot at by snipers, but I suspect I would remember the details precisely if it had happened. Unlike Roger Clemens testimony to Congress about use of performance enhancing chemicals, this type of event would seem unlikely to be "misremembered."

Apparently that's not the case for the truth-challenged Senator from New York.

Hillary Clinton told a story at a recent campaign stop that seemed designed to demonstrate her toughness and foreign policy experience.

"I remember landing under sniper fire," Clinton said, recalling a March 1996 visit to the Tuzla airport, in Bosnia. "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,"

A gripping tale. Too bad it isn't true. A CBS News Video shows what really happened. Accompanied by daughter Chelsea, she is greeted by a little girl and walks casually across the tarmac.

Clinton aides say she "misspoke." In a world where everything is videotaped and posted on the internet you'd think that someone who's trying to persuade us she has the judgement to answer that 3 a.m. phone call would realize that you can't play fast and loose with the facts.

Do you really think the Secret Service would allow the First Lady and her daughter to run from a helicopter while they were under fire from snipers? I have dealt with the Secret Service when covering the President and Vice President on many occasions, I can tell that type of scenario is just not going to happen.

Even if it did, what mother would deliberately put her teenage daughter in life threatening danger? Does that show presidential caliber judgement?

"So I made a mistake," she said. "That happens. It proves I'm human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation."

Perhaps this incident is a revelation, just not the kind she's trying to spin it into.