Hillary's war and retreat

David Limbaugh:

As the 2008 Democratic presidential sweepstakes unfolds, it will be interesting to watch the ongoing conflict between the two main rivals: Hillary Clinton and the antiwar base.

Everyone knows that Hillary has shrewdly positioned herself as a hawk in anticipation of a presidential run. Far fewer have bought into her sincerity on the matter. Conservatives know she has been acting. Antiwar liberals have fervently hoped so.

From the beginning, Hillary has received angry criticism from the left for her pro-war rhetoric and her vote in support of the Iraq war resolution. But she was able to deflect most of it earlier because the war wasn't so unpopular then and because even while supporting the war she always found a way to harshly criticize President Bush's war policy.

But now that the Democratic contest is underway, the war is much more unpopular and Hillary has primary opponents running to her left, she is facing more backlash than perhaps she expected. Will she surrender, or will she fight back with the ferocity of which she recently boasted? If the latter, who will be left standing at the end of the day: Hillary or the base?

At a town hall meeting in Berlin, N.H., one critic urged Hillary to repudiate her vote for the Iraq war resolution. When she didn't say what he wanted to hear, the critic said he wasn't interested in anything else she had to say on the subject.

This was not merely an isolated incident. At an event in Concord, N.H., another detractor accused her of wanting to "have it both ways" by demanding an end to the war now while having voted to authorize it some five years ago.

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Christopher Hitchens also notes her re-retreat problem.

A hardened veteran of the British House of Commons once put it to me like this. "You can rat," he said. "Anybody can rat once. But it's very hard to re-rat." Ah, how slowly one learns to appreciate the fine art and science of repositioning....

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... As the author of some of the tougher and better-argued speeches in favor of regime change in Iraq, she now faces repeated demands that she pass this test of correctness—and pass it by denouncing her own recent positions. It will be difficult if not impossible for her to make this full act of contrition. This is not just because such a full-scale grovel would make her look flaky and pandering—she can stand a little of that, as her absurd position in favor of the flag-burning amendment showed us—but because what she said in the first place was so definite and unambiguous.

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He goes on to bring up the inconvenient facts of the Clinton administration's policy on Iraq including regime change. While his argument is fair, it should be pointed out that the Clinton administration really had a policy of bluffing on Iraq. Talking tough while doing little to implement its stated goal. That is why many Democrats are upset about their vote for regime change under Bush. They wanted him to continue the policy of bluffing while doing nothing. Only a few who were not in office can escape their hollow words.