Tuesday, March 25, 2008

“Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002”

The title of this blog entry is the name given by Congress to the bill it passed allowing He who would be King to start the Iraq war. Hillary Clinton continues to offend the intelligence of voters by insisting that she voted for this resolution, but did not understand that she was voting to authorize the conduct of a war in Iraq. Duh! She also claims that she was fooled by the prewar intelligence that didn’t dupe nearly half her Democratic Senate colleagues, including Bob Graham, Teddy Kennedy and Carl Levin. It is perfectly clear that she voted as she did at the time because her mind and thoughts were on her future presidential campaign and her perceived need to appear strong. Remember that the Republican tendency at the time was to label anyone who was against war in Iraq was anti-American. No stand taken on principle, just a vote based on what would appear at the time, probably based on polling, would play best in Peoria (or Des Moines) down the line.

During a speech at George Washing University on March 17, 2008 she regaled her audience with an example of her experience in foreign affairs. The backdrop was that she appeared in Bosnia in 1996 that was purportedly too dangerous for Bill Clinton to appear, so he sent his wife and daughter. Clinton claimed in this speech that "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." As we have seen repeatedly that last few days, this statement was patently false. During the primary campaign in Texas she made similar repeated claims as she went on to claim a victory in that State. Caught bold faced in the lie, she now admits that her statement was incorrect, but there was sniper fire in the area, kind of like flying into Detroit Metropolitan airport on a Friday evening.

On the subject of NAFTA, Clinton claims "I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning." Very recently, she allowed the release of her records of activities while she served as first lady. Those records reveal that she was a hardy supporter of NAFTA. She was the featured speaker at a closed-door session where 120 women opinion leaders were strongly advised how to pressure their congressional representatives to approve the bill. ABC News reports that "her remarks were totally pro-NAFTA" and that "there was no equivocation for her support for NAFTA at the time."

These are not minor political gaffes that can be corrected by spinning or parsing. They are examples demonstrating the nature of the person who would like to become the next president of the United States. These examples represent a clear pattern of a person who is willing to say whatever she thinks the people listening to her want to hear no matter whether it is true or not. It is a common adage that a politician can "smell a vote a mile away," but actually the converse is true in this instant situation. It is the politician that smells and the smell has a garbage-like stink.

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