Clinton attacks Bush's "irresponsibility" on Iraq

[sanctus]

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Iowa on Sunday President George W. Bush should find a way out of Iraq before he leaves office and called it "the height of irresponsibility" to leave the problem to the next administration.

"The president has said this is going to be left to his successor," the New York senator said during a jammed rally in a fairground exhibit hall in Davenport as she concluded a two-day campaign swing in the state that kicks off the 2008 presidential campaign.

"I think it's the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it," she said. "This was his decision to go to war, he went with an ill-conceived plan, an incompetently executed strategy and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office."

A White House spokesman, Rob Saliterman, said it was disappointing that Clinton was responding to Bush's new plan with "a partisan attack that sends the wrong message to our troops and the Iraqi people."

Clinton, an opponent of Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, has been criticized by some Democrats for being slow to turn against the conflict and for her hesitance to renounce her 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq war.

At a news conference before she left the state, she sidestepped a question about why she would not call that vote a mistake, as other candidates have done.

"I regret deeply the way he used that authority," she said of Bush. "It is tragic the mistakes he has made in conceiving this war and executing it, especially the incompetence he has brought to the planning and implementation of his policy."

Clinton also chided journalists for repeatedly bringing up her response to a question at the rally about how she would deal with all the evil male leaders in the world.

"What in my background qualifies me to deal with evil and bad men?" she had asked at the rally, rephrasing the question and then pausing before she and the crowd broke into laughter. She ultimately gave a serious answer about building diplomacy.

AHEAD IN THE POLLS

Asked several times who she had been thinking about, she first mentioned al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, then Bush administration officials and finally said: "I thought I was funny. You guys keep telling me to lighten up. I get a little funny and now I'm being psychoanalyzed."

Told some in the crowd thought she was thinking of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, she shook her head and said: "I don't think anybody in there thought that."

Clinton entered the race last weekend with a burst of publicity and a lead in national opinion polls over a field of seven other Democratic presidential contenders including Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

But she must make up ground in Iowa, which she had not visited since November 2003 to avoid speculation about her presidential ambitions. She trails Edwards in polls in Iowa and is running even or slightly behind Obama and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

Her husband never had to campaign for the Iowa caucuses during his two presidential races. In 1992, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin was running and the other Democrats ceded the state to him. In 1996, Clinton was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

"My participating in the Iowa caucuses is the only thing I'll do in politics that Bill has not done," she told the Davenport crowd.

In Davenport, like Des Moines on Saturday, Clinton ran through a laundry list of policy stands, from support for universal health care coverage to plans for energy independence and making college more affordable.
She also reminded Iowans that New York was more than New York City, and talked about her work on behalf of the small towns and dairy farms of upstate New York.
"I think you'll find a lot in common with the small towns and villages in our state," she said.

 

[Curiosity]

LOL Hillary's "Word"

The woman is hoping to become president.... she should lighten up because Bush is no longer a viable opponent.

I guess smart voters understand that is the only campaign topic she can speak about because she has nothing to report from her own work in office.

Another empty suit among many.

 

[sanctus]

LOL Hillary's "Word"

The woman is hoping to become president.... she should lighten up because Bush is no longer a viable opponent.

I guess smart voters understand that is the only campaign topic she can speak about because she has nothing to report from her own work in office.

Another empty suit among many.

I shudder to think of her as President. Can't her husband run again?

 

[thomaska]

She'll be the first woman president whose husband had sex in her office. But "not with that woman"

 

[DurkaDurka]

She'll be the first woman president whose husband had sex in her office. But "not with that woman"

haha, I wonder if Bush has had relations with Mr.Cheney in the oval office?

 

[Curiosity]

I guess I have become jaded before I have the vote down here....

So many of the candidates (and I listen to all of them when I can)....have very little substance or vision to share with the people they are asking to elect them into the highest office of the U.S.

They use their time to bash the current administration which demonstrates the low level functioning of their forward thinking, and preferred rhetorical "safety" speech.

It is insulting to those backers who put money and hope into their candidacy..and all they do is choose the lowest level of speech.... insult and negativity.

I have yet to hear one uplifting sentence. One.

Let the person come up with something refreshingly new for the people of this nation.... to unify and get back on track.... and I'll lend both ears and heart.

 

[vinod1975]

I have often tried to tell my Liberal friends this. At least Bill Clinton understood some things.

 

[gopher]

called it "the height of irresponsibility" to leave the problem to the next administration.

I'm no Hillary fan. And one of the reasons why is the fact that she has had plenty of time to assertively condemn Bush's war. Instead, she waited until it became politically expedient to say it now that the vast majority of Americans oppose it. Up to now she has shown very little in the way of guts to say very much. Had she spoken out sooner, the consensus would have been against the war and may have led to a 2004 victory.

Too little, too late.

If the Dems want my vote they will have to come up with somebody a lot smarter and braver.

 

[gopher]

Quote of the Year?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melinda-henneberger/bush-i-made-a-name-by-b_b_41044.html

Bush: "I Made A Name By Being Compassionate" The Huffington Post | Melinda Henneberger | Posted February 12, 2007 04:07 PM
Contact/tips: melinda@huffingtonpost.com
READ MORE: Iraq, White House

President Bush said this morning that a full schedule had, alas, so far prevented him from following any of the Congressional debate on the troop escalation in Iraq.
"In terms of watching the debate, I've got a lot to do," he told C-SPAN. "I've had meetings up until now."
After being apprised that the debate had not actually started yet -- and wouldn't until Tuesday, after yet another delay -- he laughed and said, "I've got a lot to do tomorrow," too, as luck would have it.
Anyway, he had a pretty good idea of what he would hear if he did listen, he said, and laughed again, as he did throughout what would have otherwise not seemed a particularly jolly interview.
Yet he also seemed to have an old-fashioned case of ants in his pants, and at one point jumped in to mock a question before understanding what he was being asked.
When the interviewer made a reference to "Goldwater Republicans," and "Rockefeller Republicans," he chuckled -- his word -- and stopped the questioner from finishing his thought.
"I'm just chuckling because I think 'Goldwater Republicans' and 'Rockefeller Republicans' are pretty far past," the president said. "That's rude of me to chuckle, but I would be cautious about stereotyping philosophies."
Okay, his interviewer said mildly, but what he'd really wanted to know was how (George W.) Bush Republicans would be defined, and what images the phrase "Bush Republican" might summon for future generations.
And suddenly, it was 2000 again; Mr. Bush did not mention 9/11 or the global war on terror, Iraq or Afghanistan, Saddam or bin Laden: "Compassionate conservatism" was his legacy, he declared, and referred to the faith-based initiatives we haven't heard much about in subsequent years. "I made a name by being compassionate."
(To learn more about this cornerstone of the Bush years, I referred to the White House website, where I learned that key accomplishments in this area in 2006 include a pilot program that houses 141 homeless veterans in Chicago. Additionally, North Dakota became the first state to fully implement an extended web-based service referral system, and centers for faith-based and community initiatives hosted 110 grant-writing workshops around the country.)
What was it like to be watching the kickoff of the '08 presidential campaign from the sidelines? "From my perspective, it's good not to have a vice president running," the president said.
"The tendency, in the tense moments to feel they have to distance themselves from the White House" could lead to "instability."
Certainly, his own position on Iraq could not be described as having evolved at all: "If we fail, it's more likely they'll come here and want to kill Americans," he argued, as he has since before the war began.
Again, too, he asserted that there's plenty of good news in Iraq, even now: "Most of the country is in good shape."
Asked outright if he had changed at all in the last six years, he said no: "You'd better ask Laura, but I feel like the same fellow who came up from, uh, Texas. I don't feel changed."
Through most of the 25-minute interview, he kept his hands clasped at chest level, as if in prayer, and in closing, did allow that he was worried as never before about his father, who he said was one of the most underrated presidents in American history.
"I'm more concerned about him than I've ever been in my life," he said, "because he's been paying too much attention to the news" -- perhaps even planning to tune in to the Congressional debate over his son's war.

********************************************************


Like I said above, I am not now nor have ever been a Hillary fan. But anyone, ANYONE, is better than having Bush.

 

[talloola]

called it "the height of irresponsibility" to leave the problem to the next administration.

I'm no Hillary fan. And one of the reasons why is the fact that she has had plenty of time to assertively condemn Bush's war. Instead, she waited until it became politically expedient to say it now that the vast majority of Americans oppose it. Up to now she has shown very little in the way of guts to say very much. Had she spoken out sooner, the consensus would have been against the war and may have led to a 2004 victory.

Too little, too late.

If the Dems want my vote they will have to come up with somebody a lot smarter and braver.

Barrack Obama is a lot smarter and braver, and John Edwards and Wesley Clarke (if he joins race)

 

[normbc9]

I am by no means one who would jump in if I was in her shoes. She supposedly ran the White House for the two terms Clinton was in office and the Somalia operation was their folly. We had "Balck Hawk Down" due to the incoompetence of the two Clintons and Les Aspin who was the Secretary of Defense then. Aspin at least had the decency to resign. That whole operation was nothing more than a replay of other forages the US has stuck it's nose into. While many good deicated miltray people tried their best they received absoutly no support form their Commander in Chief. And she is now complaining about Bush? Hillary dislikes the military establishment and she makes no bones about it. She also dislikes the Education and Scientific communities too. I hope she isn't electable. Her agenda is to further enrich her own purse.

 

[Logic 7]

called it "the height of irresponsibility" to leave the problem to the next administration.

I'm no Hillary fan. And one of the reasons why is the fact that she has had plenty of time to assertively condemn Bush's war. Instead, she waited until it became politically expedient to say it now that the vast majority of Americans oppose it. Up to now she has shown very little in the way of guts to say very much. Had she spoken out sooner, the consensus would have been against the war and may have led to a 2004 victory.

Too little, too late.

If the Dems want my vote they will have to come up with somebody a lot smarter and braver.

Americans, arent lucky after all, they have to choose beetween the democrates and republicans, both has the same agenda, quite funny for a nation of 300 millions of peoples.

 

[s243a]

The defeatocrats will milk the misery of IRAQ all they can to score political points and they won’t give Bush the resources he needs to have a chance at winning.

http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009715