Jacki’s whereIstand Blog

Overall last night Sen. Clinton was stronger than expected, but then again it’s easy to shine in a debate when you gloss over the truth and frame the facts to fit the political climate.  For instance, Hillary made these statements concerning her initial approval of the war and  her later change of heart: 

I take responsibility for my vote. Obviously I did as good a job I could at the time. It was a sincere vote based on the information available to me. And I’ve said many times that if I knew then what I now know, I would not have voted that way.

But I think the real question before us is, what do we do now? How do we try to persuade or require this president to change course? He is stubbornly refusing to listen to the will of the American people. He threatens to veto the legislation we passed, which has been something that all of us have been advocating for a number of years now. And I can only hope that he will not veto it. And I can only end by saying that, you know, if the president does not get us out of Iraq, when I’m president, I will.

Sorry?  Was it not Hillary that said this in December 2005?

Meanwhile, Barack Obama essentially predicted the sectarian violence we see in Iraq today back in 2002 - before the invasion began.  He has been an outspoken critic of the war as well as the Administration’s handling of it from the beginning, yet somehow after last night the voting public is left with the impression that there is little distinction between Obama and Clinton on the war in Iraq. 

As usual, Hillary has managed to distance herself from the ugly truth.  She was unwilling to sign onto a timetable for withdrawal until she realized that the country would no longer stand for the commitment of U.S. military troops for an undetermined amount of time.  Only then did she weakly pronounce her ‘timetable for withdrawal’. 

For now, Hillary has managed to evade the tough questions on her Iraq policy over the years, but hopefully her colleagues and the media will call her on it the next time around …

whereIstand Tags

• HillaryClinton
• BarackObama
• Who should win the Democratic nomination for president in 2008?
• Who was the front-runner in the South Carolina debate?
• Based on the information available at the time of the invasion of Iraq, was it justified?
• Should the U.S. set a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq?