In Defense of Senator Clinton
Friday, February 16th, 2007Last Saturday, while Barak Obama announced his candidacy for president to a press corp squealing like a bunch of teenage girls at a boy band concert, Hillary Clinton faced some uncomfortable questioning at a town hall meeting in Berlin, New Hampshire.
Roger Titlon drove three hours to deliver his zinger question to the Senator. It was, “I want to know if right here, right now, once and for all and without nuance, you can say that war authorization was a mistake. I, and I think a lot of other primary voters — until we hear you say it, we’re not going to hear all the other great things you are saying.”
Hillary responded thusly: “Well I have said, and I will repeat it, that knowing what I know now, I never would have voted for it. But I also (applause), I mean obviously you have to weigh everything as you make your decision. I have taken responsibility for my vote. The mistakes were made by this president who misled this country and this Congress into a war that should not have been waged.”
The press has been playing this as Hillary’s refusal to accept that she made a mistake in voting for the war and has been skewering her all week. She’s right.
It was not a mistake to vote for the war given the information she had at the time. Several respected government leaders provided a wealth of information and the entire intelligence committee voted in its favor. Hindsight is always 20/20 and she answered the question properly. The MOVEON.ORG extreme left of her party would be wise to shut their yaps and drop these pointless attacks on her or she will have no reason to cowtow to them if she makes it to the general election (which may be in her best interests anyway).