Hillary respect reaches zero

While I’ve never been a fan of Hillary Clinton, I have always respected (and expressed respect) for the fact that she didn’t do the usual shuck-n-jive dance regarding her vote for the war in Iraq. She seemed to me to be holding on to her own assertion that the intelligence regarding Saddam’s dangerous capabilities were (as she said) “consistant with what we saw when we were in the White House,” and remaining intellectually honest about the fact that, given the intelligence, the invasion of Iraq made sense.

So much for that. Now that she’s “officially” running for the White House, she’s doing the dance. Not actually saying it, but implying that her vote for the war was a “mistake” based on being “lied” to by that devil George W. Bush, she’s doing the if I’d known then what I know now” thing. And of course, she’s being treated as credible for that.

Let’s face it, if ANYONE knew then what they know now, few would have supported going into Iraq. Likely, if Bush knew what he knows now, he wouldn’t have done it. But what the hell does that mean? How is it really relevent to circumstances today, to the world as it is?

We’re there now. The dems are in power now. They need to now step up and say something beyond, “oh, my, if we’d known then what we know now…” and “pull out, pull out!” If dems want to be taken seriously on matters of national security, they need to do more than wail “if only we’d knoooooowwwwwnnn!”

And it’s time for the press to ask a few questions of Hillary and the rest of the dem contenders who have not yet dropped out of the race:

1) Okay, you didn’t know, you’re forgiven for voting for the war. All democrats are forgiven for voting for the war, because even though they all agreed – from 1998 to 2003 – that Saddam had WMD and was dangerous, and even though the NY Times has revealed that Saddam was a year away from nukes, it was a big scam by Bushitler. So, now what? What’s the answer, Senator Clinton? What’s the answer, Senator Obama?

2) What do you think will happen if we “pull out,” both in Iraq, in the Middle East in general, and here in America? What will be the consequences?.

Is anyone over there going to say anything of substance, soon, regarding Iraq? Does anyone over there have a vision? Say what you like, at least President Bush had the “vision” thing about Iraq. Aside from standing in a circle and singing “Kumbaya” while people plot to poison our subways…what’s the plan?

Patrick Haynes has more.