The flap over Hillary Clinton's false claim that she braved sniper fire during a 1996 trip to Bosnia has highlighted a problem that's plagued her for much of her public life: A lot of people think she's dishonest.
Ever since she stepped onto the national stage when her husband ran for president in 1992, she's found her honesty challenged along with his — sometimes thanks to her failure to tell the truth and sometimes thanks to the eagerness of her critics to portray innocent misstatements as lies.
Either way, the issue has helped to define her and put a drag on her political standing.
"This is a real difficulty for her," said independent pollster John Zogby. "With Bill Clinton, there was always an honesty problem. But he always was able to overcome it through charm and brilliance ... It doesn't look like she is able to transcend those fundamental problems that she has with the truth."
Clinton's campaign didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.
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