Clinton attacks put focus on Iraq record

[jefferson_dem]

Clinton attacks put focus on Iraq record
Her charges on Obama spur a look at both
By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff | January 17, 2008

By turning her fire on rival Barack Obama's record opposing the Iraq war, Hillary Clinton has made a relatively strong case that after Obama's early, fervent opposition to the war, he was not an aggressive opponent of the administration's policy in Iraq during his first two years in the US Senate.

But as she returns the spotlight to the Iraq war, Clinton has glossed over aspects of her own Iraq record, in which she voted to authorize the war and did not support alternative legislation that put more emphasis on international diplomacy.

Clinton doesn't have the option of asserting that she had more foresight on the war than Obama, since she now views the invasion as a mistake. So her attack is aimed less at Obama's stance on the Iraq war itself than at using his Senate record to convince voters that he failed to follow through on his prewar rhetoric.

In her hour-long TV appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, she rattled off a litany of challenges to Obama's record on Iraq. Former President Bill Clinton made many of the same points in New Hampshire earlier this month when he called Obama's claim to the high ground on the war a "fairy tale."

Some of the Clintons' arguments are exaggerated, while others are true. A review of Obama's votes on Iraq in the Senate shows that he was not one of the most outspoken opponents of the Bush administration's Iraq policy in the Senate until he began preparing to run for president.

But Obama's position before the invasion was one of passionate opposition: In 2002, when he was an Illinois state senator, Obama addressed an antiwar rally, explaining that he was not against all wars, but, "What I am opposed to is a dumb war." He declared that invading Iraq would require an "occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences."

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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/17/clinton_attacks_put_focus_on_iraq_record?mode=PF

[HeraldSquare212]

1. An impoverished campaign: she can't defend her own actions, so she can only distort Obama's. nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. she can't blame Obama for HER voting for Bush's war!!!!!

this is what it sounds like! O was is opposed to the war. Clinton wasn't opposed to the war and I'm fairly sure she will back Bush with another?