Hillary MIA on Iraq Issue

Recently Sen. Clinton, with Sen. Lieberman, launched new legislation to tackle video game violence. A worthy notion, sure—thankfully we all know where she stands on pretend violence. But as the front running Democrat, she has a responsibility to be clearer on the issue of the very real-world violence in Iraq. She took a play from her husband's book and has been moving right lately (the video stance is obviously part of it). But now she has a problem—on the central question of the day the country is moving in the opposite direction. In the past she's called for more troops, but with that position looking more marginal by the hour she's in danger of removing herself from the debate. She's dead wrong in thinking she has to take a testosterone driven stance to appear tough enough for the voters—it's condescending and reeks of politics over principles. Criticizing Rep. Murtha's plan was exactly the wrong thing to do—she should have been the one, not him, to crystallize the debate. She would have been hammered far worse than Murtha but would have come out ahead in the long run, because the public respects—some might say demands—courage in their leadership hopefuls. In Edison's opinion the country's greatest political thinker was Thomas Paine. His most famous words?—"Lead, follow or get out of the way". If Senator Clinton thinks the last approach will put her on track for the presidency she's in for a cold awakening. Because she's going to have to clarify eventually, and when she does she'll have to renounce some of her mistakes on Iraq. "Get out in Front on the Bad Stuff" is not only Politics 101, it's advice that's excruciatingly difficult to follow. The longer she waits, the louder the negative resonances will be in 2008.