Posted on 01/24/2008 11:54:28 AM PST by opineapple
Clintons Suffer From Premature Triangulation
Penn, a professional pollster who was political adviser to President Bill Clinton, is chief strategist for Hillary Clinton's campaign. He has embraced the triangulation -- coming across as a third force somewhere between the liberal and conservative poles -- that characterized Bill Clinton's politics after 1994, based on advice from Dick Morris. To many Democratic operatives, Penn's triangulation prematurely introduced a general election strategy when in fact the party nomination was still in doubt.
Clinton was even more obviously engaged in triangulation in September, when she voted for a resolution declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. The other three Democratic senators seeking the presidential nomination -- Obama, Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd -- all opposed the resolution on grounds that it would give President Bush a pretext for invading Iran (though Obama was not present for the vote). Clinton, while attacking Bush's Iraq policy, did not want to seem soft on Iran's Holocaust-denying president, who has vowed to destroy Israel.
By Robert D. Novak
http://www.washingtonpost.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.