Clintons Misstate Hillary's Position on War--and Obama's--Again

In defending her 2002 war vote, both Sen. Hillary Clinton and fmr Pres. Bill Clinton have continued to say that this was only a vote to force compliance with WMD inspectors by Saddam Hussein by threatening invasion, not a vote for war. Eric Lipton shows how misleading that defense is here.

The Clintons have also repeatedly used distortions to smear Sen. Obama's record on opposition of the war. Make no mistake: I am one of many who have been disappointed that Obama has not done more since coming to the senate to end this war. But he has done more than Clinton. And her latest smear claim, that Obama in 2002 was in favor of "doing nothing" about Saddam is the adoption of a neo-con talking point: that a strategy of containment and weapons inspection was a "do nothing" strategy (in spite of the fact that a less vigorous form of said strategy was precisely the strategy of the Clinton administration for eight years!). David Corn, who is considerably to the left of Obama on foreign policy (as am I), sets the record straight here.

Once Hillary Clinton complained (rightly) of being the target of a "vast rightwing conspiracy." Now, apparently, she helps the rightwing out when it comes to attacking Obama. This is disgraceful voters should reject it. Further, Democrats of all stripes should be furious. After all, what if Obama becomes the nominee--do even current Clinton supporters want to have to defend him from GOP attacks that were helped by the Clintonians during the primary? I hope not.