Independents and Democrats United Against Hillary Clinton in 2008

As a public service, I’m doing my best to keep the American voter updated on Hillary Clinton’s ever-changing foreign policy views. The latest word is that Hillary has now abandoned the position she took while condemning Barack Obama’s willingness to negotiate with Iran, and returned to the position she held while criticizing George W. Bush for failing to negotiate with Iran. Naive and irresponsible to talk with Tehran? That is SO two-and-a-half-months-ago… now it’s apparently time for a fall-back to Hillary’s springtime conviction that diplomacy is the way to go.

…Except it’s worth noting that Hillary had just finished undermining her commitment to diplomacy by voting for a very hawkish resolution by former Democrat Joe Lieberman and far-right Republican Jon Kyl threatening Iran. This amendment, which Senator James Webb called “Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream” and could be viewed as a green light for military strikes against Iran (if not “war”), expressed the “sense of the Senate” (or lack thereof) that Iran’s army should be declared a terrorist group. Apparently, the Senate’s Republicans (and some Democrats, including Hillary Clinton) have been so persuaded by the president’s excuse that the sorry state of the Iraq War is all Iran’s fault that they now see themselves as better able to identify terrorist groups than the State Department. But surely our “war-on-terror” president wouldn’t use this vote as an excuse to attack the forces labeled as terrorists?

Here is a politician who rarely makes a clear statement except to contradict herself. Combine this hopscotch on Iran with the fact that Hillary has never apologized for her Iraq vote, and has never promised to withdraw from Iraq within her first term if elected, and Democratic primary voters may start to notice just how much wiggle-room she has left herself to change positions again for the general election. At this point, however, the Clinton strategy has already shifted into “say nothing mode”. As one columnist noted after the debate at Dartmouth College: “This is an excellent example of how to string together the maximum number of weasel words in one sentence. It was also pretty typical of Hillary’s entire evening.”

Please check this site frequently, as Hillary’s position may change again at any moment.