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."
Hillary defending her vote on Iraq to Code Pink in 2003, starts around 1:40 into the nausea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rOjmDsPg_s
no doubt, ehh. she is a piece of work.
If Bill had clean his mess, there might not have been any evidence for an impeachment....
To say nothing of the vandalism to the computers in the offices resulting in all those keyboards being replaced for not having a "W" key...
Bush to Hillary:
"You mean like I cleaned up your husbands nasty mess? And I'm talking about the sink!"
An Interview With Bill Clinton (long) (The Atlantic Monthly | March 2003)
The '91 authority gave them [the current Bush Administration] authority to take military action. But they can't do it now because we're under these '98 restrictions on the inspections, which had been accepted. We need to be trying to deal with the substance, the product, which is the chemical and biological weapons and the nuclear program. But the process [is] needed to further international cooperation and do it within the context of trying to build the UN. Because if you just do the first without the second, the price would be truly extraordinary.Now, on the occupation thing, I have a slightly different take. [From the Atlantic cover "The Fifty-first State," which he is pointing at.] My view is that we ought to be there but it really ought to be as internationalized as possible. Just like we did in Kosovo. Including the Russians and OPFOR [opposing force] and whatever. Let everybody do it. Probably they ought to guarantee the oil contracts. But, I've reached the... and, maybe, I know that.... It's a funny thing when you're not in office anymore. You don't do the security briefings. You have to understand. It requires a little humility. In some ways your vision is clearer, because you see the big things clearer. But in other ways your vision is cloudier, because you may miss the exigencies of the moment. So whenever I offer a judgment I try to show some humility, because I know that some things I see more clearly than I did when I was in, but some things I'm quite sure I don't see as clearly.
But I'm pretty sure this is the right thing to do. Press ahead with this thing, try to.... We knew when we did the bombing in '98 that we hit all the known or suspected sites based on the intelligence we had, from all the people that were doing that work there. We knew at the time that we had set his program back a couple years. But sooner or later in the millennium the new Administration, whether it was Gore's or Bush's, would have to take this matter up again.
You have got to be kidding me. Klintons's failed foreign policy of over a period of 8 years hands Bush global terrorism and numeous regimes threatening the US. The reason we are where we are today is due to liberalism.
If Hillary was a prostitute and whore, she wouldn't be able to finance a campaign for dog catcher.
Amazing. I don't think this woman has a clue regarding war.
Bert, she's over that now.
And this is a GENUINE photo.
She doesn't want to fight a war. Unfortunately all presidents must be prepared to.
Thank you so much for posting the You Tube of Hillary at Post #21, Rb.
Doug - I thought you might be interested in this.
It matters little that wars do not cater to any administration timetable, what matters is when the Queen speaks, we her loyal subjects, are required to obey.
Begone all you peons. Have you no respect for your royal betters?
/s
Right, how many NATO troops still are in Kosovo, and Bosnia?
How did Clinton's cut and run strategy in Sudan, Afghanistan, Kenya help long term US strategy, when did it become the permanent policy position of the Clinton wing of the Democrat party?
What a joke.
The witch is unbelievable.
She thinks we are all total idiots and will not recall her history, let alone bj's!!
She's riding high today in all the limelight, but she is going to crash and burn. Her hypocrisy is at a level that even the lsm can't ignore it forever.
You think you are so clever and smart, but guess what, piaps, your smuggness is going to backfire.
We know the truth regardless of your lies.
The exact quote Rush used today comes a bit past 4:00 min. into the clip.
It was only 3000 people. Drop in the bucket compared to what the Soviet Union lost in WWII. (From a piece Rush was "commenting" on today.)
I've sent that link to my e-mail; my computer is ready to crash so I'm not going to click on any links until the new one arrives on Wednesday.
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