Clinton Parries Iraq Questions In N.H.

In First Campaign Visit, Senator Tries To Reconcile Current War Critique With Voting Record

(AP)  Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton faced questions Saturday from New Hampshire voters skeptical about her stand on the Iraq war, including one who demanded that she repudiate her 2002 Senate vote to send U.S. troops into battle.

In her first presidential campaign visit to the early voting state, Clinton focused on her plans to revive struggling small-town economies, provide universal health care and make college more affordable. But at a town hall meeting in rural Berlin and at a boisterous gathering of some 3,000 people in the state capital, Concord, Clinton was peppered with questions about Iraq.

Most of the questions were cordial, and Clinton was loudly cheered when she repeated her pledge to end the war if she is elected president next year. But several attendees challenged the New York senator to explain how she could reconcile her sharp criticism of the war with her vote to authorize the original invasion.

“Aren't you trying to have it both ways?” asked a man in Concord.

Clinton acknowledged “a great deal of frustration and anger and outrage” over the war, and said she was working hard in the Senate to pass legislation capping troop levels in Iraq. She also vowed to try to bring to a vote a resolution disapproving of President Bush's planned troop increase.

“I'm still in the arena,” she said — an apparent riposte to a Democratic rival, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. Like Clinton, Edwards voted to authorize the invasion, but he has become a staunch war critic since leaving the Senate in 2004.

“It's very easy to go around and say, 'Let's end the war,'” Clinton added. “If we had a Democratic president we would end the war.”

Her toughest question came in Berlin, a struggling mill town in northern New Hampshire.

Roger Tilton, 46, a financial adviser from Nashua, N.H., told Clinton that unless she recanted her vote, he was not in the mood to listen to her other policy ideas.

“I want to know if right here, right now, once and for all and without nuance, you can say that war authorization was a mistake,” Tilton said. “I, and I think a lot of other primary voters — until we hear you say it, we're not going to hear all the other great things you are saying.”

In response, Clinton repeated her assertion that “knowing what we know now, I would never have voted for it,” and said voters would have to decide for themselves whether her position was acceptable.

“The mistakes were made by this president, who misled this country and this Congress,” Clinton said to loud applause.

Later, Tilton said he was not satisfied with her answer and was inclined to support either Edwards or Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who announced his candidacy Saturday.

“I love what she says about health care, I love what she says about capping troop levels, I love what she says about the war now,” Tilton said, adding he would remain undecided until she offered a clearer answer.

Clinton's refusal to recant her vote has been a sore point for many Democratic activists who tend to vote heavily in the party's primaries.

Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said his vote was wrong. Obama was not in the Senate in 2002 but has opposed the war from the outset.

For the most part, Clinton was received warmly at both New Hampshire gatherings. People cheered her loudly, with intermittent shouts of “We love you, Hillary!” and “You go, girl!”

In Berlin, retired firefighter Henry Boucher said Clinton had won his vote.

“I never thought I'd vote for a woman, but this one here I'm going to support,” Boucher, 65, said.

On Sunday, Clinton planned to attend house parties in Manchester and Nashua before a town hall meeting in Keene.

It was Clinton's first visit to New Hampshire since 1996, when as first lady she campaigned for the re-election of her husband.

New Hampshire was widely credited with reviving Bill Clinton's presidential prospects in 1992. He placed second in the state's primary amid a torrent of allegations about marital infidelity and questions about whether he had avoided military service in Vietnam.

He labeled himself “the comeback kid” after that primary, and went on to win the Democratic nomination and the general election.

Hillary Clinton reminisced about the warm welcome New Hampshire voters had given the Clintons in 1992, and said her husband envied her weekend visit to the state.

“The only thing I will try to do differently from my husband is not to make so many Dunkin' Donuts stops,” she said to laughter. “Bill gained about 20 pounds in the New Hampshire primary and I cannot afford that.”

She called her husband a “full-time political counselor” but nodded as Evelyn Owen, 69, of Salem, N.H., described waiting 12 hours for Bill Clinton to autograph a copy of his memoir.

“I've waited for him a lot myself,” the senator cracked.

[davek455]

the mistake was made by Bush, not Hillary. She should never apologize for giving the president the authority. She did the right thing. I opposed the war. Marched in the streets in Feb 2003. But I support Hillary's vote then, and I support it now. Those who say she made a mistake and should apologize are making Karl Rove smile.

[bluestardad]

If she isn't going to admit a mistake what makes her different than Bush on that matter?

Oh, and let's not forget all of those "suicides" and "accidents".

"The credibility of the office of President was in far less ruination under Clinton than this fiasco Bush!"
Posted by bluestardad


Good Grief, sir! Haven't you ever looked back on Clinton's past?? I have. His administrations have been associated to more murders than Jack the Ripper ever was! Mostly when he was Governor of Arkansas. The facts are there. Look them up.

"Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama will both ignore the parts of the Bill Of Rights they don't like."
Posted by GunOwnerDan


Very true, Mr. GunOwnerDan. I agree completely. (by the way, you can call me GunOwnerLDS).

I've read a lot of your postings on many blogs and I find them backed up by fact and quotes from very reliable sources - something that seems to be lacking from your detractors. Keep up the good work.

If you had an ounce of intelligence you would know there is no way that Hillary is going to take your gun away from you! You are really dumb enough to think the law is going to go door to door and confiscate your guns!


Sez who, You?????

Why don't you take that message to all the families who do not have a father of son today you pathetic facist. You wacked out losers have been pulling this "Swift Boat" attack on EVER good canidate we've had for far to long and look where it has us. As far as I can see you do not have the mental ability to even know when we're living under a Dictatorship!! PATHETIC LOSER!!
Posted by skyk


Sorry. I meant.....Same to you too!

skyk:

You too!

skyk:


Calm down!

Your ranting and raving is starting to get ridiculous. Take it easy or you'll have a heart attack - like your buddy Cheney. :)

dallison7.

Dream on.

[hawksprings]

dallison7, you may be right, Slick Hillary might be the next president. But tell me, how many mysterious deaths of close friends and aquaintances will it take?
Do you have a guess?

[dallison7]

In spite of what the 'Hillary haters' say, she WILL be the next president. She can't be stopped. The only question, who will be her running mate? She doesn't need Obama for the black vote, she will have the black vote. She doesn't need Edwards for the educated vote, she will have that vote too. I know, how about Chuck Hagel for the conservative vote! No one would be left to vote for the republican candidate except the neocons.

[dallison7]

You can take your Hitlery Clinton and shove her up your a$$. She's just another anti-gun libnazi.
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 09:34 AM

grumpas, your lack of respect for others is appalling, I find it offensive the way you spoke to another poster here.


Posted by thgdriver


A little selective with your indignation, aren't you?

[bluestardad]

The credibility of the office of President was in far less ruination under Clinton than this fiasco Bush!

[bluestardad]

headjob

[bluestardad]

Hey I had a good job when Clinton was in office. He had a *** I got paid good all was in balance!

[thgdriver]

grumpas Sez to gunownerdan.

If you had an ounce of intelligence.
You are really dumb.
Grow up!
ignorant people like you.

grumpas, your lack of respect for others is appalling, I find it offensive the way you spoke to another poster here.

[thgdriver]

Thank you BIGDADPATRIOT for the quotes.

No one needs to add a thing, they speak volumes.

[skyk-2009]

You can take your Hitlery Clinton and shove her up your a$$. She's just another anti-gun libnazi.
Don't you realize the Bushes and the Clintons are family friends?
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 09:34 AM : Feb 11, 2007

Why don't you take that message to all the families who do not have a father of son today you pathetic facist. You wacked out losers have been pulling this "Swift Boat" attack on EVER good canidate we've had for far to long and look where it has us. As far as I can see you do not have the mental ability to even know when we're living under a Dictatorship!! PATHETIC LOSER!!

[skyk-2009]

The fact that Mrs. Clinton seemed to have fallen for this made up hype, and voted for it to keep from alienating the rednecks that are pro-war because they think Muslims are just brown-skinned monsters, gives me great pause. I shouldn't have to say to Hilary Clinton, "I could have told you this wasn't a good idea." She should have been smart enough to know it herself.
Posted by tucson23 at 10:15 AM : Feb 11, 2007

You may not agree with Hillary on some issues but the FACT is that she can and will be the Religious Reich and she WOULD NOT have sent those kids off to die in order to "Give" Democracy to someone else. It is CLEAR now that Sir Lies-A-Lot and that pathetic Nazi he has as his vice MADE up the Intel we were fed. For her to have NOT supported that attack, given the state she represents, would have been nothing short of what we now have, a LEADER who does NOT represent the will of those he represents. She is so far above everything else out there anyone supporting some "Third" Party Canidate is only giving their vote to the Fascist Wing of the Repigs and to the Religious Reich. We should already KNOW where they will lead this nation.