Posted on 01/29/2007 2:11:52 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(CBS News) DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that President Bush has made a mess of Iraq and it is his responsibility to "extricate" the United States from the situation before he leaves office.
It would be "the height of irresponsibility" to pass the war along to the next commander in chief, she said.
"This was his decision to go to war with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy," the Democratic senator from New York said in her initial campaign swing through the early-bird caucus state of Iowa.
"We expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office" in January 2009, the former first lady said.
The White House condemned Clinton's comments as a partisan attack that undermines U.S. soldiers.
About 130,000 American troops are in Iraq and Mr. Bush has announced he was sending 21,500 more as part of his new war strategy.
Clinton held a town hall-style forum attended by about 300 activists, giving a brief speech before taking questions for nearly an hour. Pressed to defend her vote to authorize force in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, Clinton responded by stepping up her criticism of President Bush.
"I am going to level with you, the president has said this is going to be left to his successor," Clinton said. "I think it is the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it."
Mr. Bush describes Iraq as the central front in the global fight against terrorism that began after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "The war on terror will be a problem for the next president. Presidents after me will be confronting ... an enemy that would like to strike the United States again," he recently told USA Today.
One questioner asked Clinton if her track record showed she could stand up to "evil men" around the world.
"The question is, we face a lot of dangers in the world and, in the gentleman's words, we face a lot of evil men and what in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men," Clinton said. She paused to gaze while the audience interrupted with about 30 seconds of laughter and applause.
Meeting later with reporters, she was pressed repeatedly to explain what she meant. She insisted it was a simple joke.
"I thought I was funny," Clinton said. "You guys keep telling me to lighten up, be funny. I get a little funny and now I'm being psychoanalyzed."
She told reporters that evil men included al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who remains at large. "Isn't it about time we get serious about that?" she said.
The Politico.com's Ben Smith said Clinton was well received on her first trip to Iowa.
"People were surprised. She has this great advantage, people expect her to be a diva," said Smith. "But she's very good at these settings. She's very human. She talks a lot about being a woman and at the same time is hard on the Bush administration."
CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports Clinton is polling well behind John Edwards in Iowa in a field that now includes nine Democrats. It is even more crowded on the other side. In a surprise announcement, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Sunday became the tenth Republican to join the race.
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, one of the early GOP favorites, took a "pre-announcement" fund-raising trip to the other small state with a big say – New Hampshire.
He told supporters this race is about bridging the political divide.
"It is not just about ideologies or political parties, it's about who can do it better for our city, our state and our country," Giuliani told GOP activists in Manchester.
The Politico's Jonathan Martin said Giuliani received "a very positive response. Mayor Giuliani still retains the positive glow from 9/11. He was a celebrity candidate and people flock to him. He still has that sort of star power that brings a lot of folks out to see him at events."
She's a fine one to talk about "cleaning up a mess"! She and her husband and their cohorts left quite a mess that President Bush is still trying to clean up.
What!? Bill lie to Hillary? But he was such a paragon of character and integrity??? :-/
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
No, no a thousand times no! It wasn't just Bill's fault.
Jimmy Carter was midwife to the Jihad.
Let's be fair here.
Actually the War in Iraq is Clinton's mess.
He's the one who said Saddam had WMD's and he signed the 1998 Iraqi Liberation Act.
Agreed.
Someone should tell this self-absorbed little woman that she's no longer the first fishwife.
Bush to Clinton, "Bring back the light bulbs and the other stuff you took when you left the Whie House."
The ever-rapid Clinton war-room spotted the item about Mr. Romney, saying he disagreed with Mrs. Clinton’s demand that President Bush extricate the United States from Iraq before he leaves office, and issued a rapid response.
“Unlike Governor Romney who supports George Bush’s failed policies in Iraq, Senator Clinton opposes the President’s escalation and has proposed a cap on troops to stop this failed policy,’’ said a spokesman, Phil Singer. “She believes the President has a responsibility to do everything possible while he’s in office to stabilize Iraq and bring American troops home.”
And Mr. Romney, heading out of an event this afternoon on his way to a fundraiser, stopped by to offer some more reaction to what Mrs. Clinton said.
“It’s not just Iraq,” he said. The Democratic senator from New York, said the Republican former governor, was failing to view the fight in Iraq as part of the broader war against jihadism, encompassing Afghanistan and much of the Middle East. To give in on Iraq, Mr. Romney suggested, would be walking away from the war on jihadism.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/clinton-romney-ping-pong/
Good for Romney. Telling Hillary she just doesn't get it.
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