Hillary's Contorting Positions on Iraq
On Sunday September 23, Democrat Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton visited with ABC's This Week w/George Stephanopoulos where she was asked a multitude of questions about the current campaign to win the White House in 08. George opened the questions with Iraq and Clinton's answers were all at once about getting out of Iraq completely and having to wait and see before anything is done about troop levels. Here's the video from youtube.
George asks her flat out if she will remove all US troops from Iraq within her first term and her answer is that she is not going to answer that right now because she does not know what she is going to find when/if she wins the presidency. I suspect that she is saying this because she does actually have a brain and knows that an all out withdrawl would be desasterous. But what strikes me is that in the middle of a primary race in the Party that is dedicated to getting out of Iraq yesterday, is not so quick to claim that she will pull out on the first day. John Edwards has made such claims, as has Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut. Obama is her closest competitor and he is not shying away from the notion that there needs to be a withdrawl from Iraq.
From this situation, we can gleen two things: 1) the Clintons are in complete control of the Party despite how powerful the netroots think they are and 2) Democrats are not as interested in getting out of Iraq as they are in beating Republicans. Let's take these two ideas in reverse. If you think that the Democrats do not want to get out of Iraq, then you haven't been paying attention or you just arrived here from a far away galaxy. There is not question that the Democrats want out of Iraq. They do not look at Iraq as central to the War on Terror and some of them don't even think that there is a War on Terror. So this leaves us with the first assertion which is probably more true than any other theory.
The netroots, led by the Daily Kos, is not as powerful as they think they are within the Party or within the country. Clinton's answer to Stephy on Sunday is a clue to this conclusion. There are others including the fact that we are still in Iraq and there is still a Senator from Connecticut named Joe Lieberman. The netroots and Kos went all out to get rid of Sen. Lieberman and they failed big time in a state that is not the bastion of Conservatism that some may believe. Connecticut is a very Liberal state surrounded by a very Liberal region. Joe Lieberman is not the ragin right-winger that Kos makes him out to be, he simply thinks that the mission in Iraq is worthy and winnable. The netroots failed to oust Lieberman during an election that many believe was won by Democrats because of opposition to the war. Clinton's words on Sunday just amplify the notion that the netroots are not in control of the Party.
Other theories include the notion that the Democrats do not want to be perceived as the one's who lost this war. Their plan is to get Bush to concede defeat before the November 08 elections and pin the loss on him and Republicans. I don't doubt that there is some of that there but the rank in file Democrats have to be considered in the know on this. I don't think that is the case. Listen to C-SPAN's Washington Journal and listen to some of the callers on the Democrat side and you will come away with this conclusion. Another theory is that the American people are not totally on board with getting out of Iraq and Clinton knows this. She is playing to the sentiments that she is now a centrist instead of a devout socialist--which she still is. That theory holds more water than the former, but it also solidifies the theory that the netroots are not the all powerful group of radicals that they claim they are.
Clinton's performance on Sunday was very eye opening. On the one hand she expressed a desire to get out of Iraq and at the same time she said that we need to wait until she gets into the Oval Office to see what they are dealing with. From this, we can see a possibility of two things. One of these possibilities is the correct one. Either the Democrats really do not want to get out of Iraq and Hillary knows this and that's why she is leading in the polls. Or the radicals on the far Left of the Party are not as powerful as they think. Given the current state of mind of the rank and file Democrats out there, only one of these statments makes any sense.
George asks her flat out if she will remove all US troops from Iraq within her first term and her answer is that she is not going to answer that right now because she does not know what she is going to find when/if she wins the presidency. I suspect that she is saying this because she does actually have a brain and knows that an all out withdrawl would be desasterous. But what strikes me is that in the middle of a primary race in the Party that is dedicated to getting out of Iraq yesterday, is not so quick to claim that she will pull out on the first day. John Edwards has made such claims, as has Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut. Obama is her closest competitor and he is not shying away from the notion that there needs to be a withdrawl from Iraq.
From this situation, we can gleen two things: 1) the Clintons are in complete control of the Party despite how powerful the netroots think they are and 2) Democrats are not as interested in getting out of Iraq as they are in beating Republicans. Let's take these two ideas in reverse. If you think that the Democrats do not want to get out of Iraq, then you haven't been paying attention or you just arrived here from a far away galaxy. There is not question that the Democrats want out of Iraq. They do not look at Iraq as central to the War on Terror and some of them don't even think that there is a War on Terror. So this leaves us with the first assertion which is probably more true than any other theory.
The netroots, led by the Daily Kos, is not as powerful as they think they are within the Party or within the country. Clinton's answer to Stephy on Sunday is a clue to this conclusion. There are others including the fact that we are still in Iraq and there is still a Senator from Connecticut named Joe Lieberman. The netroots and Kos went all out to get rid of Sen. Lieberman and they failed big time in a state that is not the bastion of Conservatism that some may believe. Connecticut is a very Liberal state surrounded by a very Liberal region. Joe Lieberman is not the ragin right-winger that Kos makes him out to be, he simply thinks that the mission in Iraq is worthy and winnable. The netroots failed to oust Lieberman during an election that many believe was won by Democrats because of opposition to the war. Clinton's words on Sunday just amplify the notion that the netroots are not in control of the Party.
Other theories include the notion that the Democrats do not want to be perceived as the one's who lost this war. Their plan is to get Bush to concede defeat before the November 08 elections and pin the loss on him and Republicans. I don't doubt that there is some of that there but the rank in file Democrats have to be considered in the know on this. I don't think that is the case. Listen to C-SPAN's Washington Journal and listen to some of the callers on the Democrat side and you will come away with this conclusion. Another theory is that the American people are not totally on board with getting out of Iraq and Clinton knows this. She is playing to the sentiments that she is now a centrist instead of a devout socialist--which she still is. That theory holds more water than the former, but it also solidifies the theory that the netroots are not the all powerful group of radicals that they claim they are.
Clinton's performance on Sunday was very eye opening. On the one hand she expressed a desire to get out of Iraq and at the same time she said that we need to wait until she gets into the Oval Office to see what they are dealing with. From this, we can see a possibility of two things. One of these possibilities is the correct one. Either the Democrats really do not want to get out of Iraq and Hillary knows this and that's why she is leading in the polls. Or the radicals on the far Left of the Party are not as powerful as they think. Given the current state of mind of the rank and file Democrats out there, only one of these statments makes any sense.
posted by Robert A. McReynolds | 9:10 AM
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