Hillary Clinton’s sorry nonapology
Five years ago, Hillary Clinton supported a Senate resolution authorizing President Bush to use force in Iraq. So did I. It took me four years to admit this was a mistake. I’ve been wondering when Clinton would admit it. Now, from campaign insiders quoted in the New York Times, comes the answer: never. As she told voters a few days ago: “If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from.”
This is an amazingly stupid and arrogant position. If she sticks to it, it will probably kill her candidacy. And it should.
According to Clinton’s advisers, she has taken this position for several reasons. She believes in “responsibility” and would want congressional deference if she’s president. She wants to look “firm,” because that’s what voters want. She thinks an apology would look like a gimmick and a flip-flop, repeating the mistakes of Al Gore and John Kerry. That’s the “box” she’s trying to avoid.
This is a misreading of history, politics, character, and common sense. Let’s take the arguments one at a time.
And then when you get Hollywood mogul, David Geffin, against you who probably represents the feelings of a large part of the liberal movie industry whose huge donations and vocal support will be going elsewhere, you know you have a problem. These are the very people who helped get her ‘husband’ elected.
I don’t particularly care for Senator Clinton, but I find your inferences and the pictures and captions you’ve chosen in the very poorest of taste.
Go to MediaMatters.org if you’re actually interested in the documentation that surround this issue, rather than bandying about GOP talking points.
Nice uncle dave
She has to take this position, since her husband was saying similar things about Iraq when he was President, as John Edwards has been happy to point out recently. Edwards has been saying that most of the intel came from Bill Clinton’s presidency, etc.
Who is William Saletan to compare himself to a Senator in those first few sentences? That type of statement would make sense from Biden/Edwards/Obama, etc.
#1 – Anything that points out how horrifying Hillarius is, is a good thing. It would be better if the asteroid took out the Earth than her get into the White House.
3 Who is William Saletan to compare himself to a Senator in those first few sentences?
Exactly.
Why should Hillary appologize? If she had reasons for voting that way, and has made it clear what those reasons were, then then why muddy the waters by begging forgiveness?
Its a matter of record how she voted. Why try to spin it away?
Why would I support a politician who goes “on the record” one day, and then tries to dodge responsibility – via “apology” – the next?
Why is it that the people who are most fearful of Hillary are the ones who think Bush is still doing a good job?? The Judgement Impaired who helped make it possible for her to run. The Judgement Impaired who may help stir a backlash against the politics of Smear (see above) that may help her win.
Damn you guys are clever.
She isn’t going to get into the
White House. Everybody above the age of
12 knows this. All you reveal is your
own base desires, a bit of hatred of
women, and , generally, an obeisance
to Herr Dvorak’s weirdo obsessions concerning
oral sex.
#5, you must be new here. Uncle Dave is hardly a Bush apologist.
It’s a simple fact that Hillary never made a mistake. She voted for the war because that’s what the polls said. Now that the polls are saying the opposite, she’s changed her opinion accordingly.
The only independent opinion Hillary as is that she should be president. Lucky, the polls don’t agree with her on that.
Sorry, my comment was direct at #6, not #5.
Looking at the quality and content of the comments against Hillary, I think I am reluctantly coming around to supporting her.
Gawd…. did I actually say that?
One thing only do I agree with here – a candidate who won’t admit that support of the Bush/Halliburton war was a horrible mistake does not belong in any position of power. It is not only a question of integrity, it is actually pertinent to the future of the republic.
#7: “hatred of women”
Where did that come from? I love ’em. I’d be happy to have a woman president. Just not Hillary. I’m opposed to her not because of her being a woman, but her condescending, smarmy and a whole host of other negative attitudes and her policies.
As for John’s obsession toward oral sex… Didn’t know he had one, what’s wrong with oral sex?, I posted the pic, not John, and I’m curious how you would know what John’s sexual predilections are anyway.
Look, she didn’t just vote for the war, she was a pretty vocal supporter of it at one time.
Click on her picture to the left, then click on each picture under the “Then” and “Now” columns to see footage on how she’s changed her support:
http://www.gop.com/DemFacts/ThenNow.aspx
#12 – “’I’d be happy to have a woman president,” Uncle Dave so you’re a Condoleeza Rice ’08 supporter eh?
The second paragraph… that’s mildly disturbing, no offense Mr. Dvorak.
She owes no one an apology OR explanation. At the same time, no one owes her their vote.
If any politician said that they voted for Bush to engage in discussions to remove Iraq’s WMDs based upon faulty intelligence, I would accept it in a heartbeat.
#14: Condi? OK, there are two women I wouldn’t vote for or think should be prez. That leaves how many million who could run?
I am one of the liberals who keep stumbling on H Clinton’s non-apology about Iraq.
H Clinton said:
“He took the authority that I and others gave him, and he misused it and I regret that deeply,” she said. “If we knew then what we know now, there never would have been a vote. I never would have voted to give this president that authority.”
I remember that vote vividly — I also remember that there was no confusion regarding the authorization. It was to invade — even though Bush was saying other crap at the time.
We now know that Bush was full-of-crap when claimed that war would be his last option.
But I knew Bush was full-of-crap at the time.
Admit-it-or-not, the conservatives knew he was full of crap too.
Surely H Clinton also.
#16, Have you ruled out Ann Coulter yet? She could run as a female and an undecided at the same time.
#18
Ann Coulter would also pick up both the KKK and the cross-gender vote!
How many candidates could do that?
A serious note about Coulter: As much as I dislike her, I worry about her. (Seriously. I’m serious.) She seems very anorexic — like the dying kind of anorexic. She looks like she’s at death’s door. Anybody else think that?
#19, as rude as this is, we can only hope.