Go Left, Old Lady
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 4:00 pm by Neal
Check out “Hillary Lurches Leftward” by Tony Blankley. Does Hillary really think the “I voted for the Iraq war before I voted against it” nonsense is going to fool anybody on either side of the political spectrum? After all, it didn’t work too well for the last guy.
As the Democratic Party presidential aspirants finished their speeches last week to the Democratic Party winter meeting, the early big political fact is the dangerous populist and anti-war pull that the candidates feel. This is particularly dangerous for Sen. Hillary Clinton as she ratchets up, almost weekly, her anti-war Iraqi rhetoric and policy.
…But the magnitude of the Democrats’ victory in the 2006 elections, the continued ugly images and bad news coming out of Iraq, the inflamed “get-out-now” passions of the Democratic Party activists, and the unexpected threat of the Barack Obama candidacy seem to have unnerved the Clinton camp into abandoning their strategic plan to position her as a steady military hardliner and centrist.
First, when she came back from her visit to Iraq last month, she felt the need to announce a policy of capping American troop levels, opposing the “surge” and threatening the likely de-funding of the Iraqi government if it didn’t meet impossible goals. (Presidential aspirant and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden blasted this Clinton policy as itself irresponsible and foolish, as it would undercut the very Iraqi government that everyone says must take charge upon our departure.)
Then, a couple of weeks ago, she said the president would be irresponsible if he didn’t end the war by the end of his term. She reinforced that argument last weekend at the Democratic Party winter meeting when she promised to end our involvement in the war immediately upon her taking office as president in January 2009.
Hillary Clinton apparently felt the need for these swiftly escalating efforts at flamboyant anti-warism to match the “bring the troops home within months” proposals of her two strongest challengers: former Sen. John Edwards and Sen. Obama.