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The Reinvention of Hillary Clinton: Vote For The Iraq War Now A “Mistake” And The Clintons Faced Hard Economic Times After Leaving The White House

225px-Hillary_Clinton_official_Secretary_of_State_portrait_cropAdvance copies of Hillary Clinton’s new book have been distributed and the book has already created a buzz over her statements about the Iraq War, Bergdahl, and other subjects. In a statement that will be viewed as many as “too little and too late,” Clinton now says that her support for the Iraq war (and vote for the war as a Senator) was a mistake. At the time of the Iraq war, many of us opposed the vote and called on Clinton and her colleagues to hold real, substantive hearings on the war. With the exception of Russ Feingold, the members refused and eagerly jumped on the band wagon for war. After all, the war was popular and the polls were with Clinton. Then the war became unpopular, the reasons for the war exposed as untrue, and Clinton’s position began to change. She tried to offer a nuanced answer while running for President in 2008, but avoided an admission of fault or mistake on her part (as opposed to others). Now, she is coming out and offering a type of “oops, my bad.” At the same time, she has moved to separate herself from the backlash over the Bergdahl trade. With some 44 percent of Americans opposed to the trade (and only around 29 percent supporting the trade), Clinton wants no part of the scandal and insists that she was steadfastly opposed to any trade for Taliban. At the same time, Clinton has publicly stated that she and Bill also faced hard times after leaving office. It seems that when they were “dead broke” while living in the large home in New York and worried (like so many families) of how to cover tuition costs and the mortgage.

The logic on Capitol Hill has long been that votes for wars like Iraq are the safe choice for politicians since the costs of appearing unpatriotic would have greater costs. Moreover, the view in Washington is that Americans have a short attention span and you can always express regret later or blame the prior administration. While thousands of Americans are dead or severely wounded, the war can be treated as something in the past when we need to look to the future.

For those families, Clinton’s new admission is unlikely to erase the anger:

“Many senators came to wish they had voted against the resolution. I was one of them. As the war dragged on, with every letter I sent to a family in New York who had lost a son or daughter, a father or mother, my mistake (became) more painful. . . . I thought I had acted in good faith and made the best decision I could with the information I had. And I wasn’t alone in getting it wrong. But I still got it wrong. Plain and simple.”

Of course, it ignores the objections at the time that Clinton and others were unwilling to even listen to objections over the failure to address constitutional problems over another undeclared war. She also ignored demands for substantive hearings that might have revealed that there was no real evidence of weapons of mass destruction. These calls were ignored because the members did not want to hear anything that would make it difficult for them to vote for a popular war. It was at best willful blindness and can only be defined as “good faith” if one ignores the concerted effort to avoid countervailing information in the rush for war.

For those of us who opposed the war, the revision of history by those responsible for it is not short of maddening. In September 2005, Clinton began to re-position herself and blamed the Bush Administration for her vote. That was three years into the war when the polls were falling. She continued this theme in 2008 in her presidential run. She did not however come clean about being mistaken. She however adds “I wasn’t alone in getting it wrong.” That is not exactly the “buck stops here” attitude when it comes over a decade too late and shares blame with others.

Having offered the admission on Iraq, Clinton proceeds to throw Obama under a bus on Bergdahl. She makes clear that she was against the now unpopular trade and that she made clear “that opening the door to negotiations with the Taliban would be hard to swallow for many Americans after so many years of war.” She also said that Obama ignored her call to arm the Syrian rebels and that they might have been able to overthrow the regime. She wanted action and portrays Obama as timid: “[T]he risks of both action and inaction were high. Both choices would bring unintended consequences. The President’s inclination was to stay the present course and not take the significant further step of arming rebels. No one likes to lose a debate, including me. But this was the President’s call and I respected his deliberations and decision.”

So there you have it. She was “wrong” on the war but not alone but do not blame me for Bergdahl or Syria. It is called a political pivot.

If that reinvention is does not take, Hillary also appears to be making a pitch to struggling American families that she knows their pain because she and Bill were “dead broke” after leaving the White House. In an interview with ABC, Hillary details the harrowing reality that followed their departure from the White House: “We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt. We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy.” For a candidate who has had persistent problems with authenticity, this is not going to help.

Of course, unlike most Americans, Bill Clinton immediately started a speaking tour that brought in millions, including some fees from questionable associations. Also the Clintons were able to call upon fundraiser Terry McAuliffe (now, the governor of Virginia) to secure a loan for a $1.7 million home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Hillary Clinton has pulled in the same huge fees after leaving office as we previously discussed. This includes half of a million dollars from Goldman Sachs in less than a week. The weird math that allows the Clintons to claim to be “dead broke” is that they had legal fees from their time in the White House. However, no one seriously expected these Democratic firms to pursue the Clintons for payment and donors quickly worked to pay off that debt. Those bills were entirely paid off by 2004 by donors eager to help the Clintons.

It is not clear if this will remake Clinton into a new image of a struggling mother and peace advocate, but many in Washington believe that American voters have the memory of a golden retriever puppy. They will have to. The Democrats have been pushing Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton to a public that is calling for an end to the duopoly of the two parties and a break from the Washington establishment. It will be interesting to see if the next book paints Biden as an outsider in Washington. In any case, the campaign has clearly begun and, despite even liberals wanting to see Hillary face a primary challenge, the Democratic Party appears to be treating her nomination as a done deal.

Source: Politico

239 thoughts on “The Reinvention of Hillary Clinton: Vote For The Iraq War Now A “Mistake” And The Clintons Faced Hard Economic Times After Leaving The White House”

  1. Leon, I’m having a great day. Every day I wake up is a great one. I did misspell caricature. Thanks for pointing that out. Enjoy your life.

  2. We are a country with no memory. Here are the reasons why we went to war in Iraq, with a list of quotes from Democratic politicians going back a decade, articles going back twenty years:

    http://www.reasons-for-war-with-iraq.info

    Saddam used chemical WMD many times on his own people.

  3. Unfortunately, if Ms. Clinton wants the White House, it is hers to lose. All of your points are very well taken Jon and on target, however, most Americans vote for president the very way they vote for American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. They have no idea what the real issues are and make absolutely no attempt to do so. What they will hear out of Hillary Clinton is this. “Blah, blah, blah, free stuff, blah blah blah, free stuff, blah, blah, blah, free stuff. Merry Christmas.”

    How does a conservative candidate beat this? He or she will say, “Work hard and prosper. Get educated and contribute. Government is not your nanny.”

    Santa Claus wins every time. http://www.thepoliticalspectator.org

  4. I am surprised she remembered enough to be able to write a memoir. She is constantly saying I don’t recall, in Congressional hearings. Her memory is very fragile. And she has had a serious concussion. She says it took a month to recover, Bill says it took 3 months to recover. Which liar do we believe?

  5. There is a hypocrisy of wealthy,elitist, liberal women that is breathtaking. Gwen Paltrow, Charlize Theron, Hillary Clinton, to name a few. They whine about their “troubles” showing a narcissism that would be a perfect chariacture, if it were not true.

    1. Pure psychobabble, Spinelli. What is your “chariacture” (sic)? Sounds like those “wealthy, elitist, liberal women” (and, oh yes, don’t forget the narcissism) get under your skin a bit — maybe like, H. Ross Perot who said his lot was to be the grain of sand that irritates the oyster to make the pretty pearl. Hope your day improves. 😉

  6. Well said, Bryan.

    Hillary is a dead horse. To all the die-hards: It is cruel to beat a dead horse.

  7. I’d rather have someone as president who has the character to learn from experience and know what it is like to be in the Congress and be lied to. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice …. uh….

    Something tells me that Hillary would not be a “Pavlov dog” president vis-a-vis those who report to her. Imagine yourself reporting to her. Would you dare lie to her or mislead her to a conclusion or decision? That job is about selecting leaders who can build teams that can work together to build effective results. I suspect she understands the DNA of many political persuasions and interest groups. She’s not flat broke right now so she can focus completely on her legacy and the best (and realistic) interests of the country.

    That’s my two cents.

  8. “We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt. We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy.”

    Because those 8 years in the WH they incurred a lot of expenses. Like housing. Oh wait, no – taxpayer funded. Travel. Nope, provided with fleets of armored vehicles, helicopters, even 747’s. Food. No, got a full staff for that.

    Perhaps they spent their money on legal bills. Whitewater, the countless suits brought against Willie by past “lady friends,” his impeachment and disbarment, etc., etc.

    Regardless, none of this matters to the American voter. She’ll probably get the DEM’s nod.

    If they can just find someone from the State Dept that can actually list her accomplishments while heading that Dept. Anyone? Hashtag?

    Then again, there will be some hearings going on throughout this year, possibly into 2015 that will do some damage to the former SoS.

  10. I had no idea ol’ Hillary was just like us common folks. What a joke. The sad part is, she will be our next president if she runs. Libs are such hypocrites.

  11. swarthmoremom

    Dredd:”Another boring election of yet another Pontius Pilot.” I am not totally sure Hiullary is running. If she does not, Elizabeth Warren seems to be the favorite as is Ted Cruz for the republicans. That contest between a leftist and a far far right wing zealot would not be boring.
    ====================
    I am not sure who is running either.

    The culture produces plenty of candidates all of whom are subservient to a culture that is way past the command of its sanity (The Peak of Sanity – 7). All that remains is the bread and circuses.

    It no longer matters who is president in terms of changing course back toward the proper direction by now deep in the fog of the past.

    It really doesn’t.

    All the voters have available for them is the speed which we are traveling in the wrong direction.

  13. I am happy to see Professor Turley putting the Constitution above party, the rule of law above the rule of man, the people over a single personality.

    I pray more Americans will do the same.

  17. Hillary not running? Please. The whole broke coming out of the White House thing is hilarious.

  18. Dredd:”Another boring election of yet another Pontius Pilot.” I am not totally sure Hiullary is running. If she does not, Elizabeth Warren seems to be the favorite as is Ted Cruz for the republicans. That contest between a leftist and a far far right wing zealot would not be boring.

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