Digby says you might be but only if, poor soul, you're obsessed with following presidential media and money issues. Prof. Juan Cole summarizes what each of the candidates said we should do about Iraq, followed by his daily depressing news summary from that accursed corner of the globe.
Firedog Lake's Scarecrow focuses on how Hillary did. Somewhat surprisingly, that relentlessly snarky blog was impressed -- until the "ugly moment" when she "missed an opportunity to improve her own image and her party’s ability to confront terrorism" by attacking John Edwards with "the most poisonous of the Bush/Cheney talking points."
That moment may add a little fuel to the fires about to be ignited by NY Times reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Atta Jr. Their new book "Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton" is being published this week. Yesterday's Sunday Times Magazine leads off with an interesting and reasonably balanced 8,100 word excerpt from the book detailing Hillary's complex and evolving position on the war in Iraq.
We came away from it concluding that it is both a strength and a weakness of Hillary's mercurial and evolving positions on the war that her thinking pretty closely mirrors the mercurial and evolving positions of a majority of Americans. Almost all of you were for it before turning against it, right?
The part we like best describes how a truly grass roots organization, Code Pink, after many months of trying at last was invited to meet with Hillary in person. This was 'way back in March, 2003 when opposing the war might have made a real difference:
Suddenly, big walnut doors were thrown open and Clinton, dressed in a bright blue coat on top of a black pants suit, strode into the room. The women rose quickly from their chairs and applauded. Clinton thanked them and paid homage to the group’s trademark.And there you have it -- a politician who is awash with familiar human strengths and weaknesses.
“I like pink tulips,” she said with a smile.
Clinton then addressed the obvious gap between Code Pink’s position on the war and her own. “I disagree on an aspect of those concerns,” she said. Clinton then asked if the group had a spokeswoman.
A tall woman approached the table. Medea Benjamin introduced herself and thanked Clinton for taking the time to meet with them.
Benjamin, a veteran of causes on the left, explained to Clinton that she had recently led a delegation to Baghdad. Clinton nodded but said nothing. “We know that you’re a wonderful woman,” Benjamin told the senator, “and that deep down, we really think you agree with us.”
Business being business, the Code Pink leader then cut to the chase. “There are two ways to go,” she intoned. Her group could give Clinton a pink badge of courage if she supported their position. If not, the group was prepared to give her a pink slip.
Clinton struck a conciliatory note.
“I admire your willingness to speak out on behalf of the women and children of Iraq,” she said.
When asked by one of the women why the United States took on the responsibility to disarm a country like Iraq, Clinton replied that without “U.S. leadership” there would not “be a willingness to take on very difficult problems” because of the “attitudes of many people in the world community today.” She cited her husband’s muscular foreign-policy actions, at times taken unilaterally, as a precedent for the Bush administration’s intervention in Iraq. “I’m talking specifically about what had to be done in Bosnia and Kosovo, where my husband could not get a U.N. resolution to save the Kosovar Albanians” from the ethnic-cleansing policies of Slobodan Milosevic, Clinton told the women. “We had to do it alone.”
Another Code Pink member then asked Clinton if she believed that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein, Clinton replied, had “such a proven track record” that he could only be described as having “an obsession with weapons of mass destruction.” She then seemed to suggest, but did not explicitly say, that she had read all the secret intelligence reports on Iraq available to senators. “I ended up voting for the resolution after carefully reviewing the information and the intelligence that I had available,” she said. Clinton told the Code Pink protesters that she had also done her homework by “talking with people” she trusted.
Then Clinton turned to leave. “Sorry, guys,” she added.
But before she could make her exit, a Code Pink member told her, “I heard that you were willing to give up the life of innocent people in Iraq to find Saddam Hussein, so I just want to give you my pink slip.” The woman then tried to shove a pink undergarment in Clinton’s hand.
Clinton backed off and shot a look of fury at the woman. “I’m the senator from New York,” Clinton snapped, wagging a finger at her. “I will never put my people’s security at risk. I resent that.”
- humor ("I like pink tulips");
- honesty ("I disagree on an aspect of those concerns");
- an instinct for conciliation ("I admire your willingness to speak out on behalf of the women and children of Iraq");
- an instinct for dissembling ("She then seemed to suggest, but did not explicitly say, that she had read all the secret intelligence reports on Iraq available to senators.");
- cold, sober realism ("without 'U.S. leadership' there would not 'be a willingness to take on very difficult problems' because of the 'attitudes of many people in the world community today.'");
- knowledgeableness ("Saddam... could only be described as having 'an obsession with weapons of mass destruction'");
- forthrightness ("'Sorry, guys,' she added");
- anger ("Clinton backed off and shot a look of fury at the woman");
- pettiness ("I’m the senator from New York,” Clinton snapped, wagging a finger at her... I resent that"); and
- resolve ("I will never put my people’s security at risk").
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