Former President Bill Clinton took to the campaign trail on Thursday and reminded people exactly why the Clintons should never be permitted back inside (besides the fact that the maids have to count the towels and comforters when they arrive and depart): they cannot tell the truth.

Here is what the former president told a crowd, “"I remember when we were young, right out of law school, she went down and tried to join the Army and they said 'Your eyes are so bad, nobody will take you.'"

I thought something sounded familiar about the story, but I did not remember the specifics so off to Lexis I went and there it was.  Hillary Clinton told a similar story back in 1994 that went something like this.

After she graduated from Yale Law School she walked into the Marine Corps recruiting office in Fayetteville, Arkansas and told the Marine inside she wanted to enlist.  The year was 1975 and the exchange that followed allegedly went something like this:

"He [the Marine recruiter] looked at me, and in those days that was before I learned how to wear contact lenses; I had these really thick glasses on. He said, ‘How bad's your eyesight?' I said, ‘It's pretty bad.' …Finally said to me, he said, 'You're too old. You can't see. And you're a woman.…But maybe the dogs (Army) would take you.'"

Did nobody brief Bill on the lies told during the 1990s?  Did her campaign learn nothing from the gaffe over her Bosnia combat experience?  Since this is not the first time Hillary Clinton has had trouble remembering things having to do with the military – maybe someone should inquire further because if anyone keeps good records – it is the United States military.

First someone just needs to look at the facts: Hillary Clinton was just out of law school (and not just any law school – Yale Law School) and that would mean she would enter the USMC as an officer.  Recruiting stations (including the one that used to be in Fayetteville) were for enlisted men and women.  Lawyers go through an entirely different process when they want to serve – in her case she would have been permitted to commission as an officer as a Judge Advocate General (or JAG) and her age would not have mattered (and neither would her glasses).  Everything has an ability to be "waived" and that is as true today as it was as far back as the 1950s.  Do we really believe that the USMC would just say - "Nope" to a Yale Law grad who wanted to VOLUNTEER?

The problem with the story she was telling a group of female veterans is that whoever wrote the speech looked up the requirements for ‘enlisting’ in the military.  She was not going to enlist as a lawyer – she would have been a commissioned officer at a time in our history when the military needed volunteers to be officers (and enlisted folks) in the military.

Prior to Bill Clinton re-telling the story of his wife’s unfortunate inability to serve our country (something only brought up every decade and a half or so) the last thing military that Hillary Clinton did was take a wild ride into Bosnia in 1996.  She told the world, and she did it many times not just once, that she ‘mis-spoke’ when she talked about running to the waiting cars as they (she and her daughter) came under sniper fire. 

It is too bad that video was found that showed Hillary Clinton and her daughter accepting flowers from a little girl (or was that Hillary shielding her from the snipers) and having a little meet and greet when they arrived in Tuzla.

Far be it from me to be cynical about the Clintons, but all these stories do is remind us why they should not be put back in a position of power.  That is not to say that Obama is ready for the Oval Office either – his anti-Semitic awarding, Hamas manifesto printing, church membership is evidence of that, but the Clintons are pathological.

Hillary Clinton tells stories over and over and over again about arriving under fire when she visited Bosnia and it is called a mis-speak, but ask any member of the military if we do not recall the exact moment that we first felt in danger during our service.  During my program the other night I received no less than two dozen stories from veterans ranging from Korea to the present who remember their first contact with the enemy.  How does Hillary Clinton remember being fired upon to such a degree that if she were in the Marine Corps that she would warrant a Combat Action Ribbon and get away with calling it a mis-speak instead of a lie when it is proved false?

There were calls from the press (to be fair only some of the press) for John Kerry to release all of his military records (something he still has not done) and it is almost certain that John McCain will be asked to sign, if he has not already, a Standard Form 180.  That is the form used to release every record that the Department of Defense or any of the services maintain on members of the military – from the Revolution to the present.  What is unknown by some is that if you so much as step foot inside a recruiters office a form is generated and it is maintained by an office in St. Louis, Missouri.

So sign the form Senator Clinton and let’s see if your eyes were bad because no recruiter would tell you in 1975 that you could not join – they’re not qualified to do it.  Their job is to enlist men and women – not to turn them away.  It is asking the American people to engage in “a willing suspension of disbelief” to think that the military would ever turn away a Yale Law graduate in a time in our history when the military needed people to fill JAG positions like never before.

Bill and Hillary Clinton have told some real whoppers over the years, but nothing gets under my skin the way they talk about the military and the real life military encounters they allegedly had when, in reality, nobody has ever bothered to check.  The Clinton campaign will say that no records exist, but I know enough about military recruiting to know that they keep records on you from the minute you walk in the door and a recruiter (a retired Marine who was recruiting around the same time as Hillary Clinton walked in the door) told me the following:

Can you think of anything more idiotic than a Marine turning away a Yale lawyer who wanted to serve during the end of the Vietnam War?  He would have had his nuts handed to him for that.  We kept ‘contact’ sheets back then and they all got turned in, I’m sure it is somewhere in Saint Louis.  Maybe she remembers the name of the recruiter and if she doesn’t I’m sure the Corps does!

That’s true and he’d be young enough to remember since a recruiter would be about the same age as Clinton.  Surely the guys from Arkansas can be identified quite easily and we can put this story in the same bin as the one from Bosnia.  Let’s get this SF 180 signed and delivered to the records folks and will the reporters out there please start taking some notes because when a story has four endings it is a fable – not reality.  Start fact checking.  Why is it that talkers and bloggers can pick this stuff up, but journalists (you know the kind of people that write news) can’t seem to figure it out?

Steve Yuhas is a radio talk show host on AM 600 KOGO in southern California and may be reached atsteve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com