In Defense of Clinton - Part I

After the stunning defeat of Hillary Clinton at the hands of her opponent, Barack Obama (and an opponent is what he is, despite the friendly rhetoric) in the Potomac primaries, us Clintonoids were feeling a little despondent. The significant lead which the Clinton campaign had been enjoying was finally eroded, the race becoming a dead heat despite her commanding lead in superdelegates. It was time for a shift, and Hillary made the right move by shaking up her staff and ejecting unneeded support.

Not Goldman Sachs or Time Warner, of course. She has enough experience to know that, thankfully, business interests are the one thing you don't want to tinker with, despite what your constituency may think.

But more than issues with staff, I feel that the Clinton campaign has had too difficult a time trying to pander to the "far left" by explaining away Clinton's war record. I will address this sentiment in the Daily 49er soon, but I wanted to take a moment to outline some of the key details here.

The piece that brought my attention to Hillary Clinton's war record blundering was a clip from Countdown. Take a look:

Others have expressed similar sentiment about Clinton's position on the war, feeling that while she expresses a desire to end it eventually and routinely criticizes the current administration, they feel that there hasn't been much of an official apology. When asked to officially apologize for her Iraq vote by Roger Tilton at a New Hampshire campaign stop, Clinton replied that "Knowing what I know now I would never have voted for it."

Valid. Certainly a few of our minor assumptions about the war were a bit misguided, but it's not like anyone knew any better at the time. Cut her some slack, libs! Your poster-boy in 2004 said that he "agree[d] completely with this Administration's goal of regime change in Iraq." You were smart enough to want to put him in the White House, so why not someone like Hillary?

I have said this many times before, but it bears repeating: Hillary is strong when it comes to foreign policy. Not McCain strong; not "Bomb-bomb-Iran" strong. But that's to be expected from the Democrats. It's sort of like when a boy pretends to shave with his dad and uses a tongue depressor to peel the shaving cream off his face. He's got the right idea, but he's not quite ready for the multi-blade. Or, in McCain's case, the K-bar sharpened against the jawbones of his enemies.

Hillary Clinton refuses to back away from her war vote, sticking to her husband's mantra of "strong and wrong beats weak and right." Despite the wail of the moonbats, she remains unwavering. And that is the kind of resolve I love to see in a President. In reality, I believe all Americans, Democrat or Republican, admire someone who will intentionally defy the will of his own people and the restraints of Constitutional law in order to advance his/her own ideological goals.

Clinton has demonstrated that she will do that, and do it she must.