Hillary regrets the IWR vote

[Cant trust em]

So one of my biggest complaints about Clinton has been her vote for the IWR. In previous debates she always gave some kind of explanation on why it was a good vote. Last night she says that she wishes she could have taken it back. What's the scoop here?

I really am not trying to produce flame bait with this post.

[Arugula Latte]

1. She voted for it for political expediency, now she wants to take it back for the same reason. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

2. That pretty much summarizes it in my book.

[tabasco]

3. Give the poster a kewpie doll!

You're the winner!

[JimGinPA]

4. You...

Hit that right on the head.

[DS1]

5. only after it had to be absolutely dragged out of her

and that's all we're getting. whoops, but not 'sorry'

[Cant trust em]

7. That's where I was going with this

but I knew that if I added my opinion in the OP then I would get blasted out of GDP and back to the lounge. You can't make a criticism these days without people calling you a sexist, war-mongering freeper.

[FlyingSquirrel]

22. You're a sexist war-mongering freeper

;)

I can't for the life of me imagine why she waited this long to say what she said last night. It's still short of an apology but vastly better than her responses to date. I darn near fell outta my chair. (Coulda been the beer though) :)

At this point though, it's too little, too late. No point figuring out whether she said it out of political expediency or not.

[Cant trust em]

25. I was confused when I saw it

The whole thing was so contrary to what I've known up to this point I didn't know what to think. I was like "Hold on. Did I miss something?"

[Cha]

24. Yeah, it sucks to be

politically expedient. Would like to know who told her to ignore her constituents and look tough for when you run in 2008?

[Muttocracy]

6. is this one of those thing where there are shades of meaning

Like I don't think she's ever said it was a "mistake" as some candidates did but she does "regret" it. I'm sure a poll of DU would find different feelings about whether that's an important distinction.

(Personally, I wish she's just say, it was a mistake)

And, I want to hear her give a good explanation for that Kyl-Lieberman vote on Iran too. I think all the other senator candidates who voted on it voted no. that makes me afraid she didn't learn from the mistake (that Bush et al. can't be trusted with any authorization).

[Johnny__Motown]

8. The scoop? Her advisers have focus groups and polling showing that taking it back helps her now

[jackson_dem]

9. She always said basically the same thing that she wouldn't do it if she knew know what she knew then

The difference here is she was asked about her biggest regret and she mentioned it. This netroots demand that she say "I am sorry" or "I was wrong" makes no sense. Edwards did it and the same people who demand Hillary do it still attacked him over the IWR. It did Edwards no good. He got 32% of the vote in Iowa in 2004, 30% this time as he finished second again. In NH he got 12% in 2004 (4th) and 17% this time (3rd).

[GodlessBiker]

10. She should have used the "Fool me once" line on herself for this vote and not against Obama.

If she had gotten this out of the way a long time ago, people would have forgiven her for the vote.

[Muttocracy]

20. I agree

I was completely against the war, but willing to support any of the candidates who could clearly admit they were wrong on that vote, and who showed evidence that they had learned from it (being critical of Bush admin, clear policy statements about later votes, not voting for similar resolution on Iran). Senator Clinton's lack of clarity on this and her K-L vote on Iran really bother me. I'm OK with politicians whose view change, and don't scream flip-flop when they do. But I don't like it when they can't say it clearly.

[GodlessBiker]

21. Yep. The Iran vote didn't help with clarifying things.

[Der Blaue Engel]

11. The scoop here is that Hillary can do no right

It doesn't matter what she says; some people prefer to ascribe devious motives to everything she does and refuse to acknowledge when she does something they have previously claimed was the one thing they demand of her to make her acceptable to them.

That's the scoop.

[hfojvt]

29. it's not that it's not right

but it's about two years late and the timing is not convincing to her detractors.

[mod mom]

12. The scoop is that there were 23 Senators D, R and I) that could see thru this BS:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237#position

[Cant trust em]

15. What's really ironic about the group of 23

is that they took a political risk that turned out to not be so risky. For the most part they all kept their jobs. Some retired, one was replaced by other anti-war congresspeople and sadly, one was killed in a plane crash.

[tabasco]

17. Plus most of the Dems in the House of Representatives. n/t

[Skip Intro]

13. She has said before that she regrets it. What glares at me from this whole thing is

Obama has Kerry by his side campaigning for him, and all the Obama supporters here were just thrilled with Kerry endorsing Obama - but Kerry voted the same way Hillary did. If you are going to call one a war-mongering murderer, then you must call both the same. Which leads me to wonder, how does Obama and his supporters stand such a horrible criminal in their midst?

[tabasco]

18. Got a link?

I haven't seen that. Thanks!

[Skip Intro]

19. no, not just now, but I have heard her say it before

[Cant trust em]

33. I hold endorsers to a much lower threshhold of scrutiny than candidates

Endorsements don't mean a whole lot to me. I can't speak for everyone else.

[Independent-Voter]

14. A bit fucking late, don't you think? This is the first time those words has come out of her mouth

[ngant17]

23. now if she can only raise the dead

that is to say, bring back the more or less 1 million dead innocent Iraqis, to complete her faux pas and wipe her slate clean once and for all.

The problem with wars and violence as the hasty and immediate solution to a problem, it is that you can't go back after you realize you're stuck with the consequences of using deadly weapons and deadly force for whatever was the original reason (it was illegitimate, in this case).

You shoot a dark object at night which you thought was a burgler threating you at your doorstep, it turned out to be an innocent bystander, a child, someone totally harmless. It's the same problem. You didn't give yourself time to rationalize the consequences of the decision, and now you are charged with the crime of negligent manslaughter in the court of law.

[Cant trust em]

26. But there was no time to look hard at the details

The terrorist are planning another attack right now while I type this message! We don't have time for civil liberties right now. A subway car in Manhattan is about to explode. Run for your lives!

[Cha]

27. Yes, it wasn't something like the bankruptcy bill,

or that other recent vote she regretted..this involved millions of human lives. It's too sad really.

[Catherine Vincent]

16. She said it because she realizes her vote may put someone like Obama in the White House. nt

[musiclawyer]

28. This was the most striking thing she said, IMHO

I mean, at the very end of the very last debate. Imagine had she said this in debate 1. She might have run away with it already. Indeed, too little to late. But I'm glad she waited. I don't want the DLC near the white house ever again.

[BuyingThyme]

30. She didn't reject it so she can only denounce it.

[Cant trust em]

31. Gotsta love semantics, or in this case...some antics

Good lord was that a goofy exchange. I'm glad that Obama put in it's proper place and that the crowd responded.

[BuyingThyme]

32. Killing Iraqis ain't no big deal, but finding a non-existent tangential opening to connect Obama

to an anti-Semite like Louis Farrakhan is worth addressing.

Hillary is one evil woman.

[Cant trust em]

34. Evil woman? Like a witch! That is sexist!

Ah ha! Just another semantics trap.

I am, of course, kidding. All of the wolf crying around here has turned into a nice little form of entertainment for me.