Hillary Clinton is right not to apologize for her vote in 2002 to authorize the President to use force in Iraq. Given the information presented to her, and given her role as a Senator, it was the correct call. I recall that I was also in favor of the resolution at that time. She could have been more skeptical and pressed for more information--and ideally she would have--but the CIA and the White House would have not given her markedly different intelligence estimates than what they had already made available.
The critical distinction Clinton must continue to make is that while the decision to give the President the power to confront a clear and imminent threat (or what was presented as such) belonged to Congress, the decision to skip all diplomacy, scuttle the inspections process, and march straight into war belonged entirely to President Bush. Kerry did not make that case clearly, and may have lost because of that failure; Clinton is working hard to do it right this time. The one thing she must not do is apologize.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Resolutions
Posted by Dr. Strangelove at 4:32 PM
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4 comments:
I remember Kerry repeatedly making exactly that point but no one believed him. I think the problem was that before Katrina there were still a lot of people in this country who were uncomfortable with any argument that depended on assuming that Bush and his people were dishonest and incompetent.
In the Post Katrina World, it is clear exactly how little integrity Bush and his crew have. Clinton can make a case that she was lied to and people will simply agree. Kerry did not have that luxury.
RBR
I don't think she should apologize, nor do I think people should continue asking her to. It's irrelevant. So much water has passed under the bridge since then that I think the focus should really be on what we do going forward rather than what happened 5 years ago.
Saturday Night Live said it best about Hillary. They had her character say in a fake news interview, "The American people know that my support for the war was always insincere. If I had known then what I know now, that you could run for President and still vote against the Iraq war, I would have never pretended to support it."
That's HRC in a nutshell. Got nothin' to do with what the CIA said. I have said to others on this blog that I would vote for Hillary out of spite, because it would piss off the GOP to no end if she won, but spite and vengeance is not a recipe for success.
RbR and LTG are right that 2007 is an easier time to make a more nuanced case about the meaning of the original war resolution.
It bears notice, however, that HRC was quite outspoken, decrying the dangers of Saddam Hussein, before she cast her vote. I am sure every Senator or Representative voted on the war resolution with an eye to their next re-election campaign... it is the way of the world.
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