Hillary Clinton insults New Zealand, fibs about her namesake

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Rachel Morris, writing for the Washington Monthly‘s blog, says that “Hillary Clinton may have gravely insulted” New Zealand in a recent Newsweek interview. Asked if a scrapbook she’s been keeping since childhood contains “any good jokes,” Clinton came up with this zinger:

Here’s a good one. Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand: her opponents have observed that in the event of a nuclear war, the two things that will emerge from the rubble are the cockroaches and Helen Clark. [Laughs]

Ha ha, I guess?

The trouble, as Morris points out, is that “Helen Clark is the current prime minister of New Zealand,” and has been since 1999. “[T]he joke doesn’t get funnier even if you happen to know something about New Zealand politics,” Morris tartly observes.

That’s not Clinton’s worst New Zealand gaffe, however. In the grand scheme of things, it’s hardly a big deal. New Zealand, after all, is a pretty obscure country halfway around the world. This, however, is just plain embarrassing:

Mrs Clinton also once said her parents named her after [New Zealand native] Sir Ed Hillary, a nice line till it was pointed out she was born more than five years before he climbed Everest, when he was still a lesser-known beekeeper.