London Calling: Memo to Hillary Supporters -- Tell It Like It Really Is

I have a favor to ask of some of you Hillary Clinton supporters, particularly the females among you. And you are legion.

For once, I'd just like to hear one of you say something along these lines:

"Yes, I know Hillary was wrong to vote for the Iraq war. But I'm going to overlook that because she's a woman, and so am I. And it's time we had a woman president in the U.S."

I suspect that a lot of women, most of them committed Democrats, feel precisely that way. But they won't admit it, at least not the ones I talk to.

I understand why Ms. Clinton has decided not to come clean on why she voted for the war, and why she feels she can't apologize.

To disclose the former would reveal the kind of political calculation she'd rather not be known for, but is. And when candidates apologize, that can be seen as a sign of "weakness."

But I would hope that some of her fans could be honest enough to say what really happened in the Iraq vote. And why they still support her, despite hating the war.

But rather than do that, Hillary's supporters subject us to these absurd verbal contortions in trying to justify their candidate casting the same vote as the Republicans she's running against.

(And please, stop with the semantic, hair-splitting canard about the difference between voting for authorization and voting for the war. That's a ridiculous argument, always was.)

Hilary's supporters won't acknowledge that, in voting for the war, their candidate was still pandering to her New York constituency, well after the 9/11 attacks.

They won't admit that, like Cheney, Hillary has linked the Iraq war to 9/11, as recently as earlier this year.

And they try to paint her as a "victim" of bad intelligence, the exact same way the White House does with President Bush.

Think about that for a minute, in light of what we've just heard from Bill Clinton.

On the one hand, Hillary's campaign likes to point to her being more experienced than Barack Obama, because of her time as the First Spouse. But when it serves her political purposes, they'd rather we ignore what she learned during her time in the White House.

Hillary wants us to disregard, for instance, that it was her husband's administration that decided in the late 1990s that the Iraq sanctions were working and that there was no longer any need to keep the weapons inspectors there, to play cat and mouse with Saddam Hussein.

Remember those tedious eleventh hour ultimatums NATO gave Saddam, pulling the bombers back at the last minute when the dictator finally agreed to let the inspectors do their jobs? I do, because I was there covering them.

It was on her husband's watch that the US and NATO chose, wisely, to change tack. The new policy was to pull the inspectors out and simply bomb Iraq, in a limited but effective way, every time Saddam stepped out of line by building a new radar facility or breaching the no-fly zone.

And the policy was working.

Hillary Clinton's supporters love to tell us how much smarter she is than George Bush. No argument there.

But now we're supposed to believe that she swallowed the intelligence nonsense that Bush was peddling to Congress, on how dangerous Saddam had suddenly become, even though she knew, first hand from her days in the White House, how impotent Iraq really was.

None of it adds up.

Girls, we know, and so do you, that Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq war in order to position herself for the 2008 campaign. And it's tough to argue, politically, with her decision, given the way the Democratic race looks today.

But there's another aspect to this -- the moral question. And Hillary Clinton is on the wrong side of one of the most important moral issues of our time. For reasons of ambition and political expedience, she made the wrong call.

Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have died in a war she helped start. Thousands of American soldiers have been sacrificed, tens of thousands more maimed.

The congressional vote, of which she was a part, helped lead to the biggest strategic disaster in the modern history of U.S. foreign policy.

Despite all of that, millions of Americans are going to support her, simply because they feel it's time America had a woman president.

Well, the least they can do is admit that. To say it frankly, and honestly, in a way we longer expect of our politicians.

Or is that too much to ask?

Comments

[Skoorb]

It is easy to see why she voted for the war, be real. If you were given the same intelligence you would too. Anyway that is behind us now. Everyone makes mistakes. She is our only hope of getting back our country. The only other candidate worth talking abut is Joe Biden. He would be good too.

[MichaelJames]

If Hillary had bothered to read the National Intelligence Estimate, she might have realized that going to war was not worth it. Hasn't her "experience" taught her that you need to read the fine print?

Of course, talking about the actual intelligence is a fool's errand in this case because the main reason she voted for the war was to not be vulnerable from the right during her presidential campaign.

Furthermore, her recent vote for Lieberman-Kyl is a dangerous sign that Hillary did not learn her lesson from the Iraq vote.

[Paladin2]

What the hell is wrong with people? Joe Biden? Hillary is going to give us our country back? Sheesh! What drug is everybody on? Hillary is a corporate whore who will say anything at all to get elected. Same goes for Biden. And for those of you who want to Canonize Al Gore, take the time to read Al Gore, A Users Manual, a close examination of his true record by two liberals and tree hugging environmentalists that should cure you of that fantasy. The DLC, composed of the Clintons, the Gores, Joe Likud Lieberman have destroyed what was left of the Democratic party these deluded commenteers believe still exists. With a Democrat in the White House we will still be occupiers of Iraq even if they are there for two terms. They have as much as said so. The 'leaders' of the Democratic party are so little different than Likud Joe that it's not worth mentioning. You'll vote for her because she's a woman? Then you'd probably vote for OJ because he's black. There are not two parties in the U.S., just two wings of the same party with the same goals and sold out to the same corporate rulers. Do you really think the corporate rulers that really determine policy give a shit who wins? Then you are a fool, because they own them all and will continue to reap the benefits while the other 97% of the population will watch their lives, freedoms and choices continue to shrink until there's nothing left. There is no Democratic party and there is no Republican party. There is one party, the ruling party and you and I have no say at all in it. But Americans are either too cowardly or deluded to face that simple and painfully clear fact. Go ahead and elect the whore an see where you are in four years. You'll just be further down the slippery slope you're already sliding down. Why do both parties co-operate so well when it comes to keeping a third party down and out?

[Julia333]

As a female who has worked really hard to get a head in her male dominated profession, I must say it really annoys me to see someone claim her husband's experience as her own.

She has very little experience on her own resume. She has only been an elected official for 6 years. She has no reply on what she actually did as first lady of the US or Arkansas. She was asked at the last debate and didn't have a response. She did present a health care proposal that failed, and would have been fired in the corporate world.

Real feminists don't run on their husbands record. They make their own.

Since the first women president will be setting a record, we have to elect someone who can do the job. On her own.

[Julileegal]

Hey, wake up, any man who gets ahead does so with his "little woman" supporting him, you just don't know it. Men are babies, they definitely need to be held. Hillary is just taking a little boost up the ladder.
If it wasn't for Laura, W couldn't even read.

[Spoons]

Hillary sold us out on invading Iraq and on health care both, two of the most important issues of our times. If you think the Invasion of Iraq is costing us lives and billions (and it is), it still pales in comparison to what the health care debaucle is costing us, and she wants us to believe that the problem is the solution. Her plan is more Corporate Welfare for insurers than Healthcare for Americans, with loopholes already attached. Our country simply cannot afford to put off real reform any longer.

[bookluvr]

I don't know anyone who plans to vote for Clinton.
I don't trust her, or believe the evasive "answers" she give during the debates. The only candidate I trust to represent my interests and values is Dennis Kucinich and I am angry with the media for ignoring him completely. Most Democrats would support him if they knew enough about him, and his wife is an amazing woman who would make a wonderful First Lady. I'm going to vote for Kucinich in the primary and I urge all Democrats to take a good look at who he is and what he stands for.

[wrabbitt]

after seeing the movie sicko and finding out how she rolled over for the drug/insurance companys on health care we might need a woman for president but, not that one sorry hillary!

[dannyS]

Kucinich and Ron Paul are laughed aside as "crazy" because they talk about real change. Everyone else talks about change, but would never in a million years get anything to happen. The citizenry doesn't really want change, just to daydream about it and feign conviction in political debates. Things just get worse slowly. And then something like 9/11 happens and people still don't change. There is no motivation for the country to find a common cause until we're all either starving or invaded, and maybe not even then.

[albalovescholo]

1) i am a woman
2) i AGREE with you, 100%
3) senator clinton was 50% of why i voted for president clinton (President Gore being the other 50%)
4) i have grown to despise hillary clinton, because of her disingenuous claims, and her steadfast unwillingness to share a heartfelt mea culpa regarding her voting for an illegal and imoral war
5) while i am more than sick of the way Whitey runs this corporatio­n--oops!--­country, i REFUSE to vote for a woman simply because she has a vagina instead of a penis. she is NOT the best person for the job. PERIOD.

Barack Obama in 2008!!!

[Julileegal]

Typical catty response. What would you do in her place? Not run?

[Lon]

Actually a scarier though then that she was pandering with her vote is that she actually believed in it.

The distinction between authorizing and declaring war is not as silly as the above post makes it out to be. But Hillary, of all of the senators besides Lieberman, went furthest in giving speeches supporting going to war rather than simply authorizing it as a tool for peace.

[Sidewhispers]

We're foolish to expect any better of Hillary. Since she had a great say in Bill's presidency, I'm sure she was very aware of his continuing little sorties and bombings of Iraq. Did she ever try to stop him on the sanctions that killed thousands of Iraqis? Did they ever discuss over dinner the corruption in the OIL FOR FOOD program? We all know how she caved to big insurance and drug companies. I'm afraid she has been to bed with "business as usual" for too long to think ouside the Washington Box. Well, Hill, you're not my girl, and I'm not yours!

Time for some new blood girls! Don't vote for someone just because of their gender!

[Sidewhispers]

This is one female vote you ain't gettin' Billary.

[josieb]

Now there's an interesting article in a major magazine this month on the relationship between Tipper Gore and Hillary, which I think will be added to the mix before long.

[Democrab]

There once was a woman named Rodham
Who saw young Bill Clinton and caught 'em
They both learned together
To survive stormy weather
And beat all opponents who fought 'em

[SherryReson]

Copy alert: "To say it frankly, and honestly, in a way we longer expect of our politician­s." I think you mean "no longer expect."

[kmccaskill]

hillary just voted for the resolution to label iran's official army as a terrorist group,

since bush is fighting the war on terror this gives him a back door to attack iran, and on saturday iran put forth a resolution to label the u.s army, and cia a terrorist group

[speakingout]

It's interesting how Karma always comes back to bite you. There are not as many Hillary supporters as the press wants us to believe. Their pole usually takes about 1,000 people, not a very significant number when our population is around 300 MILLION. Voting for Hillary will be continuing the Bush/Clinton empire. We need a COMPLETELY new direction in the whitehouse. The Clintons and Bushes are friends. Hillary tells you what you want to hear and then does the opposite when it comes to decisions. First she's for the war, then sha said she would end it in January 2009, now shes for continuing it until 2013! She's a Flipper! Wake up America!

[Oijay]

I hope your article encourages people to reconsider supporting Hilary! The fact that she voted for war proves that she either wasn't informed or she was more concerned about politics than human lives. She doesn't represent the women in this country! She's one of the last people I would want to win, and I certainly don't want Bill to share the office with her. You don't impeach a President and then let him sneak back in office on his wife's skirt tail! She should have divorced him.

Kucinich for President!

[JimNauseam]

Will Al Gore please stand up?

[Nancyann]

Al might stand up if he got overwelming encouragement from the voting public. Go to www.draftgore.com and see what you can do. He seems reluctant to take on the Clinton vicious machine but he must in my opinion...­..

[kali4niadazed]

Ok I will do it so she voted for the war I think we were all lied to about what was actually happening, and there should have been no war, of course. I as a woman will say it. I don't overlook it but we must all look at ourselves and the residing president who lied. Yes I am Woman and I feel it's time to have a Woman as a US President for sure. There I said it and I mean it.

[Nutcase]

I am a male. That doesn't determine my decision for whom I will vote. I agree that it is well past the time that women had a real chance at becoming president. That, however, does not mean that her gender, or yours, should trump electing the person who will best serve the people.

There are serious questions beyond her positions on the war. To me, ambition is her foremost consideration. It colors many of her actions and positions.

In 1993-4 she took on the insurance companies, drug companies and medical establishment. Her method was naive and her solution an unworkable hodge-podge. Now she takes money from her former foes and offers a ghastly plan that could have been written by their lobbyists. It allows them to continue robbing the public and increasing their revenues. The explanation? Ambition - certainly not the best interest of the public.

To ignore the problems with her candidacy simply because she is a woman bothers me. It reminds me of the 2000 campaign. Many so wished for an end to the divisive tenor of the recent past that they accepted the claim of compassionate conservatism despite the facts.

Was there compassion in Wimp, Jr's treatment of death row inmates? How about his treatment of John McCain? One could use up this site's entire bandwidth with all of the reasons to not vote for him but some people focused on one factor to the exclusion of all of the more pertinent facts. See where that got us?

What are our priorities?

[Julileegal]

Say you have to vote for a woman for President. If not Hillary, who would you select?

[mjwca]

Well, I am a woman too and while I would like to see a woman president, I ONLY want to see it if she is the best candidate. Hilary clearly is not and shame on any women out there who pick her first because she is female. That ghettoizes women as much as dismissing her just because she is female would. Both men and women need to get past their gender (and class and race) biases and vote like grown ups instead of children.