Good debate by both last night – but on the war issue, Clinton’s answer just does not stack up. She proclaims experience but then argues that she was just deluded that Bush would use the resolution to go to war – hogwash, it was politics and at the time supporting Bush was the safe play for her. More below from the WAPO storyon the debate:
On the subject of the Iraq war — arguably the issue that has shaped the course of the Democratic contest — Obama made a crisp if familiar argument: that his judgment about the invasion reflected a broader skill for understanding the world. Obama also said his consistent opposition to the war would make him a stronger candidate in the general election.
“You know, Senator Clinton mentioned the issue of gravitas and judgment,” he said. “I think it is much easier for us to have the argument when we have a nominee who says, ‘I always thought this was a bad idea, this was a bad strategy. It was not just a problem of execution.’ ” Clinton countered that she had believed that sending weapons inspectors back into Iraq at the time Congress approved the war resolution in 2002 was a “credible idea,” repeating her contention that she did not know that Bush was going to invade.
If you were in the White House for eight years then you would think that she would know that at the same time Congress deliberated over the Bush authorization, he was already in the process of sending 100,000s of troops over to Kuwait at huge expense in money, manpower and equipment and that such a massive force could not just be kept in the desert for months on end – particularly beyond the summer months when it would be difficult to launch an operation. So, if you were experienced you would know that such a massive mobilization could not really be turned back and would inevitably lead to conflict – like the Guns of August and the mobilizations that led to WW1.
Either Clinton knew this was going on and voted for the war politically or she didn’t, or didn’t think about it, which means that after eight years she really had not learned much about military and security matters.
She can try to make the Kerry-like argument that she was voting for the resolution to give the President the tools to threaten Saddam into letting inspectors back in, but given that he was sending a massive army over to Kuwait already, one that could not but be used, I find that argument just does not wash, especially for one who proclaims such experience. Like too many, Clinton voted for the war because it was politically difficult not to – and if she says she didn’t know Bush’s intentions, she is either full of it or terribly naive about these things.
Time to enter 2008 on the War Debate
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p>If you want consistent opposition to the war then you have to go with Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich who both (I believe) voted against every authorization and war funding bill. Something neither Hillary or Obama can say they did. Let’s move on. Both Hillary and Obama know what needs to be done now and on that there is little day light between them other than what Snarky Blitzer tried to wedge in there.
I don’t blame Obama or other dems for maintaining funding once our soldiers were in the field. Once we broke Iraq it was not something we could just leave broken entirely and summarily cutting funding would be irresponsible.
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p>But going to war in the first place was the fundamental misjudgement and Obama was right on the issue and Hillary was wrong.
…how Obama is “new” and Hillary “old” when his campaign is based more and more on a speech from 2004 and a vote in 2002?
There is not much more to be said than that. She blew that vote and she has a really lame excuse for why and how she blew it.
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p>When I think about it – on the two biggest political acts of her career – her leading on health care in the White House and then voting on whether we should authorize war, she has blown it both times. He failure on health care set back efforts for decades – showing absolutely no political understanding whatsoever. Her vote for the war showed a massive lack of judgement and understanding about the real situation in Iraq. And then she says she was duped. C’mon, she should have known better – stood with Ted K and others with guts and voted against it. She didn’t do that cause she spent her whole first term in the Senate preparing the ground work to run a centrist, tough on terror campaign for president.
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p>New or old, she f-ed the two biggest things she has had to do in public life.