An Open Letter to Senator Hillary Clinton

Dear Senator Clinton,

You have had many chances to revise your story about your terrible vote to authorize President Bush to attack Iraq. Others in the Senate, 23 Senators as I recall, voted to not grant him that authority. Since that time several other Senators have openly regretted their vote for invasion, including three Democrats who ran against you for the 2008 nomination and one who was the Democratic standard-bearer in 2004. Maybe their public misgivings sank their candidacies. Maybe that is your calculated judgment.

Is it that you don't have misgivings about your vote, or that you are fabricating history to support your vote and have no intention of backing down about it. At one point you claimed that you simply believed your President. Gosh. If this is the case you will continue to inspire Obama supporters to send him more money. And if you count on winning them over after getting the nomination you will be in for a surprise.

Why not acknowledge that people learn from mistakes. In fact, they are wiser than those who claim always to have been right - like Obama does now and McGovern did a generation earlier. You can say you believe in reparation, that you have a moral responsibility to remedy the damage your vote caused. You can say that is why you must be elected, not just to clean up the mess made by Bush, but the mess to which you actively and even avidly contributed. In saying that you will clean up your own mess you will be winning support of many more voters because you will show, not just say, that you have integrity.

Comments

[HillRaiser2008]

If you read the letter from a physician who arrived at WTC on Sept 11, 2001, you could read for yourself that Sen. Hillary was at the WTC, shook hands with medical doctors and teams, gave them inspiration and none of the other candidates were there that day!!!

Hello, who cares about people? The doctor stated that Hillary did not have cameras or photographers with her. She was walking around with one special agent and looked like an average citizen. When Bush came, the medical units had to evacuate for three days, not treating the 50-70 people per hour, so that no one would assassinate him. Yeah, right.

Shall we even bring up Katrina!

Do research, get the facts: Hillary Clinton always does!

[jackie1962]

hillary would make a great president, she has told everyone why she sign for the war but it seems like the people are not listening to her, she said that bush lied to them about the weapons of mass destruction is the reason she sign, which he did lie. i just wish people could see that.

[geriak]

Get over it! Hillary is the only choice and reading this dribble cracks me up. Barack seems terrific and when he gets some more experience he will make a terrific President! Go Hillary!!

[Fairfloss]

She voted the way she did because the former Clinton Presidency was convinced that Saddam Hussein was a threat. Does no one remember the former Clinton Presidency BOMBING Iraq, claiming Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction? (It was a co-presidency after all, that is were most of Hillary's 35 years of experience comes from.

The trouble with young voters, they have no memories. Therefore they must do their own research and not be spoon fed what others want you to believe.

[WHATEVER7]

Her vote was a calculated decision based on her electability. I think she knew the correct moral vote was no. Obama and McGovern were right.

[alibe]

Very well said. We all know that Hillary knows way more that Barack. She is tough. Bill had a very successful Presidency. She was involved in his Presidency up close and personal. In addition, she has been a worker in her own right before and after his Presidency. Obama is very eloquent but his resume is very slim. His ability to write two autobiograpies before age 45 while showing very little in the arena of accomplishments, is strange. His biggest accomplishment may be in writing those books. If Hillary had his resume would she be even considered a serious contender for the Presidency? I doubt it. If he had her resume, he would be a shoe in.

[Dap]

Dear Dr. Frank,

An excellent open letter, indeed. And excellent advice to the Senator from NY. Agape.

[WASanford]

Oh! and R J Eskow's "Warning: This Party May Self-Destruct in Ten Months" is this morning's required reading for Democrats!!

[myskylark]

You are asking her to commit political suicide. Like it or not, when a woman says she made a mistake or that she's sorry, she is made to appear weak. She would be a terrible target for the republicans in a general election and even for the men running against her in the primary.
As I recall only 13 members of the senate voted against the resolution.

What's most striking to me is the hateful, vicious, insulting curses that Obama and Edwards supporters heap on this woman. You people are really sick.

And to you fools who keep saying that you will never vote for Hillary in the general election, let me say in a way you've made a convert. After listening to the vicious tone of Obama supporters I've decided that I will never vote for Obama in the general election. Now we can all pick up our marbles and go home from the playground.

Here comes President McCain.

[desmirl]

If the USA passed a law that said, "If you favor a foreign war, you must serve in the front lines of that war," we wouldn't have wars. Wars are thrust upon us by Chickenhawks, cowards, and bullies, and then justified with skillful lies that are intended to make us feel good about ourselves.

[ArkansasAngie]

Obama is McGovern Incarnate

Who had the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate in 2007? Obama.
Let that sink in.

Obama beat Dennis Kucinich for that honor? Wow!

Obama beat the first American socialist senator, Bernie Sanders? Wow!

So ... the most liberal member of the Senate is going to unite this country. Those who believe that have either smoked something or have drunk the koolaide.

Which former Democratic presidential candidate also had the most liberal voting record? McGovern.

Did McGovern win? No. In fact ... McGovern's candidacy is about the time that Republicans turned liberal into a four letter word -- weak.

Supposedly the US is, in general, to the right of center. To win the presidency, you have to have moderates and independents.

How many of those to the right of center moderates and independents are going to vote for the most liberal senator in the country? How many will vote for Obama when his opponent is a moderate, to the right of center, straight talker?

What is the most important thing for Democrats in the 2008 election? To win!!!

Clinton has all sorts of problems. But ... her problems pale when compared to someone who has earned his ranking as the most liberal senator in the senate.

The feeding frenzy of the media seems to have blinders on. It brings to mind OJ, Jessica Simpson, Spears and "the rush to war". If you aren't for Obama then you're not for change. If you aren't for the War in Iraq then you are unpatriotic.

It's the same thing.

Electability and being able to do something once in office are the keys. The most liberal Senator in the Senate doesn't fit that definition.

If this country is going to unite it's foundation will come from the middle. If this country is going to find common ground and make the compromises needed to move forward, the most liberal Senator in the Senate will not be the conductor.

Someone else will be leading the band.

[OldBlueDog]

As for the campaign I don't know why you guys insist on making it an issue, George Bush sent the troops in, not Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards or anyone else, I too would have trusted that the President would exhaust every diplomatic avenue before taking that step, none of us knew that he and Cheney were hell bent on finishing what his dad started. You, just like me, just like Obama, were not looking at the intelligence and were not charged with making the choice. I was opposed to the war from the beginning too, but the bottom line is, we are there now, regardless of who did and who didn't vote for it and whether their vote was a mistake or should be regretted. Can't we please focus on how to get out without leaving a bigger mess behind? Instead of insisting on discussing whether or not Obama was right all along. And by the way, if he was so damned opposed to it, then quit voting for funding it!

[LizM]

When will y'all - who should know better - understand that a vote for that Iraq resolution was NOT the equivalent of a vote for war or for de facto support for this Iraq invasion. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

This vote has been spun so much by so many, from every corner, that few people - and fewer candidates! - know what the truth of the matter is anymore!

[JD8]

What is the difference between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton? A lot more than most think. It lies in their actions and their records, which speak far louder than their similar policy platforms. Place your vote and see the commentary: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/2/0181/84501/394/448113

[Pieface]

Taking out horrible Saddam was justification for invasion in its own right, regardless of alleged WMD activities.

Hillary has nothing to explain or defend in this matter.

[jfor]

Clinton is the queen of pork. She is the master of the earmark. She is addicted to power and will do anything to attain and keep it. Hillary is not an agent of change. Hillary has told us that Iraq will remain the same.

By the way does anyone really know where Hillary actually comes from. And does anybody else wonder why she is not a Senator from there?

[BeyondKen]

Maybe she feels that taking down a dictator who probably killed more than one million innocent men, women, and children was not a bad thing to do.

[jnuno]

Hillary did not procure or create the case for war against S. Hussein. The President and his administration did. How does one appologize or regret an action when it was carried out in good faith? If at the time she cast her vote, evidence (whether manipulated or not) was presented that implicated S. Hussein as a dangerous person and threat to not only the Middle East, but to U.S. citizens, how can any responsible legislator vote against the bill? Whether the evidence was misrepresented or not, the interests and safety of the U.S. preceeds partisan idealogy and dislike of a president.

This Open Letter is nothing more than an attack on Hillary and an attempt to promote her opponent in the presidential race as having had sound judgement for opposing a war he did not have an opportunity to vote on. However, being the phoney and garden variety politician that he is, and not the Messiah people make him out to be, B. Hussein Obama voted for the war over and over when he reached the U.S. Senate. He is not so righteous after all; a fairy tale indeed.

This attack on Hillary will do nothing to solve the problems that continue in Iraq.

[ProgressiveNotLiberal]

It is far to late for that. My deadline for apologies was prior to the 2006 elections and I will never vote for Hillary now nor in November. No Progressive would have ever trusted Bush with that power. Only an idiot would use Bush as an excuse for their own failings and we don't need another idiot in the White House. However I suspect that vote by Hillary had more to do with her own aspirations to the Presidency than to protecting Americans. For that, she doesn't deserve the title of idiot. What she did was far worse and more accurately label morally and ethically depraved. Simply being an idiot would be a step up.

[Orikinla]

Hillary Clinton will respond when most appropriate.

What matters most now is not whether she voted in support of the war or not, but the fact that she has admitted that it was a wrong war and has gone ahead to propose a plan on how to end it and bring the American troops back to the U.S.A.
Finis.

[Countess]

Mrs. Clinton was a true believer in Bush's bullshit about Iraq as she herself stated the other night in the debate and it was only after she realized that democrats did not share her enthusiasm that she started adopting her withdrawl plans up. She also worked with Cheney and Lieberman to try and build up hysteria about Iran. This is not someone we want in the white house.

[zeiben]

My thoughts exactly. She'll only recant her vote if it becomes problematic for her election, whereas all the others you mentioned did it from the get-go because it was the right way to go. I agree she needs to be taken to the mat for this issue, and I'm also uncomfortable with Obama's chant that he's been right from the start. We've had 7 years of people not admitting they were wrong, and I think that's quite enough, thank you. One of the biggest reasons I was sorry to see Edwards go.