Which is worse?

[calmblueocean]

I want to come clean.

As an Obama supporter, I have to accept what Barack has already said, that allowing a contributor of his to simultaneously purchase an adjacent lot to his new home was a "boneheaded" thing to do and "a mistake". It's disappointing to me to have to acknowledge his bad judgment here, but I accept it. The fact that he is forthright about his own mistake here helps a little bit. But it was a mistake, and he knows it, and I know it.

I have read dozens of threads on this mistake over the past few days, raining thunderous condemnation and furious insults upon Obama. People who literally hate Obama because of this issue. Or at least they sure act like they do.

I have also read dozens of threads about another mistake recently, one that some people don't seem to think was so bad at all.

Of course, I'm referring to Hillary's vote for the "Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq".

You might remember it. Or maybe you don't. I've read so many posts lately that say Hillary's vote to authorize the use for military force in Iraq "doesn't matter."

"It wasn't a mistake," they say.

"Who cares? It's old news."

"It's not important."

Really?

I'm not surprised when conservatives minimize the damage of war. It's what they do. It's why we'll never get out of Iraq while there's a Republican in the White House. But I never fail to be surprised when I see that same sort of minimization on DU.

I think we're just so disconnected from the actual consequences of the war in this country that the numbers we hear (and we rarely hear them anymore) are meaningless. What's 29,038 wounded but a number? Or 3,943 soldiers dead? Just a number. What if it was twice that amount? Or twenty times? Would it make a difference? The numbers of Iraqi dead due to our invasion are approaching 90,000, about 22 times the number of our own dead soldiers.

You can't express the anguish all these numbers represent. You'd need a million novels to do it. And each one would rip you up inside, to your core.

Everyone makes mistakes. Some are bigger than others. Given the tremendous amount of tears and angst and posts devoted to Obama's home buying mistake, and the continued shrugs and denials regarding Hillary's, I've begun to wonder where our priorities really are here anymore. So go ahead and answer, which mistake was worse?

[Muttocracy]

1. is this a rhetorical poll? :) n/t

[Ken Burch]

2. Nobody died from the land deal.

"It's the Perspective, Stupid!" to paraphrase a one-time Democrat.

[HughMoran]

4. Could Hillary have stopped the war by voting "no"?

If somehow the Senate didn't pass the war resolution, would that have prevented Bush from going into Iraq?

I'm not defending Hillary's stupid vote mind you, I'm wondering if she could have single-handedly stopped the bloodshed?

[Ken Burch]

6. Stopped it, no. Made it clear that she had done all in her power to try & stop it, yes.

That would have made a huge difference in the long-run.

And it would have made it much easier for a lot of Dems to get past the fact that, at the same time as this, HRC was also pushing as hard as she could for our party to adapt a Scoop Jackson/Joe Lieberman-style foreign policy; I.E., one in which we would have agreed with everything the GOP was trying to do around the globe.

[DiamondJay]

3. even as a Clinton supporter

I do not care about things politicians do if they are things which affect no one in any negative. Rezko deal was just that. Just like Whitewater, the travel office thing, cattle futures, blah blah blah blah blah

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

5. Remind me again

How many hundreds of thousands of people have died because of the Rezko deal?

[calmblueocean]

7. Either some folks are just gaming the poll, or DU has gotten worse than I thought.

I may just have to take a vacation from this place until primary season is over. Minimizing the deaths of 100,000 people just to win an online poll is sick and depressing.