No one has been a stronger supporter of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson than I have, having been one of the original writers of the CIA Identities Protection Act, and someone who believes not only that Valerie was wronged, but that those who committed the wrong committed grave acts that harmed our country.
The nation owes a debt to Joe Wilson for warning us about the falsehoods and sounding the alarm in favor of truth prior to the catastrophic decision, which Hillary Clinton was one of the most aggressive supporters of, to go to war in Iraq.
Regarding his defense of Hillary, his attack on Obama, and the personal tone of his attack on Obama (a demeaning tone that is symbolic of so much that has gone wrong with Hillary's presidential campaign, I just flat out disagree.
Regarding Hillary Clinton's experience, by far her most important national security experience in her entire life was her five years of all-out support for the Iraq war. Her aggressive and uncompromising support for the war in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Her stubborn, relentless support for the war in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Her most recent major experience with national security was her vote for the Lieberman-Kyl resolution, which she falsely portrayed as a vote for diplomacy with Iran, when in truth it was a neocon-inspired push by those who favored war with Iran, as they favored war with Iraq.
Obama has done more than enough foreign travel, but in truth, who cares? I wish I had a dollar for every supporter of the Iraq war in Congress, who spent year after year of this nightmare war regaling us about their latest trip to Iraq and how everything was going just great as they learned on their latest trip.
I was for Al Gore in 2008, and am not behind any candidate just yet, though it is clear that the tone of Hillary's campaign has created huge ill will alienating indepenent voters which is why she usually runs well behind the other Democrats against leading Republicans.
Joe's personal attack against Obama, so common among the Hillary surrogates and supporters, is exactly the disrespectful tone that moves beyond appropriate criticism and creates enormous ill will against Hillary from large numbers of independents, and a growing number of Democrats.
Who was not saddened by the pathetic spectacle of Bob Kerrey, a good man I once supported for President, engaging in four days of "Barack Hussein Muslin Madrassa Obama" discussion?
What America wants, Obama gets, and in some ways, Edwards gets as well. What America does not want, is four years of neo-Bush style personal attacks in their living rooms and their lives of the kind that the Hillar surrogates make a daily art form.
What Obama gets, is that America wants to turn the page, to a new era of civility and decency in our politics and an era when Democrats no longer engage in the daily maneuvering, positioning, triangulations, careerism and nastiness of politics.
There is a valid argument that Obama lacks sufficient conventional experience, and a valid argument that he has the kind of broader, more humane and wider experience than those with long resumes, tied to the old establishment, guilty as charged in supporting for years the most unwise war in American history.
The Iraq war is a story of the corruption and extremism of the neoconservative radicals.
It is also a story of the weakness and moral and professional failure of the conventional national security establishment.
It is above all a failure of what passed for the national security establishment of the Democratic Party, whose leaders too often supported this war, whose foreign policy experts too often were blowing with the wind, and whose "experience" did and does grave damage to our country.
Anyone who supported the Iraq war for five bloody, deadly years and then supported the Lieberman-Kyl amendment should show more taste and better judgment and more modestly in boasting of their own "experience' and launching personal attacks on those who were far more right than she.
Don't believe me, believe the army of political independents who overwhelmingly dislike the kind of attack that the Clinton campaign has launched that endangers her campaign and could lose the election to Republicans in November.