Here's how Hillary could have responded to Obama.

[TheWraith]

Because some people here seem to still think that the smear and fear campaign was the only way Hillary could have gone, I present the following: the way that Clinton could have responded to Obama in an eloquent, clean, and aboveboard way.

On change:

"I completely agree with Senator Obama that we need major change in Washington. I've seen the system from the inside and the outside, as a congressional counsel, as First Lady, and as a Senator, and I know from up close and personal experience what needs changing."

On the war:

"When I voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq, I made a simple and, in hindsight, obvious mistake: I trusted the President. I thought that any President of the United States, no matter his views or his party, wouldn't send Americans into harm's way without every effort to insure the neccessity of the cause and their safe return. Obviously, I was wrong, and it's a mistake I've learned from."

[Beregond2]

1. Exactly.

What more is there to say? She didn't trust the American people to respect her for being honest and forthright, so she chose to play games, and look where it has gotten her.

[stratomagi]

2. Problem is she couldn't have responded that way

simply because who she is would make it impossible to think that way.

[eridani]

8. I think you are wrong

IMO, it was her decision to be "managed" by shitstains like Mark Penn that was behind her actual response.

[stratomagi]

12. So you're proving my point further by saying she can't have an original thought.

GREAT!

[eridani]

33. It's about being "managed" by pollsters. Gore made the same mistake

You might note how he's changed since then.

[cliffordu]

39. Yep.

[nichomachus]

3. It was her inability or unwillingness

to adapt to the changing situation on the ground that caused her to lose.

She had a game plan, but when the game took a different turn, she didn't/couldn't adapt to the new paradigm.

People were rejecting the "old ways" on which she'd built her game plan and she didn't understand that. So, she kept going to the tactics that were turning a lot of people off.

You're right in your assessment -- even if it's 20/20 hindsight -- and part of the problem is that she surrounded herself with advisers who were do ingrained in the old system that they couldn't adapt.

[donheld]

4. K & R That's spot on!

[Usrename]

5. Yep, she could have fairly easily co-opted his movement.

That would have been the way the smart money would have played it. Trying to crush the movement, or mock it, was a huge miscalculation.

[TheWraith]

6. Mocking the movement... Penn's prints are all over that move.

It's the way a disgusting slimeball like him would HAVE to react, just out of instinct, because any genuine grassroots movement that wasn't ginned up, or faked, or driven by media spin, threatens the entire way people like him do business. They thrive on the status quo. And for whatever reason, she bit on it, and ran with it.

[roguevalley]

17. some people can't admit they are wrong. her refusal to understand

that the electorate needed contrition on Iraq and all she had to do was apologize was over her head. She can't be wrong. she won't be wrong. she had this idiotic iron clad roadmap to the white house and no one was going to divert her. apologize was not on the list. she is bone headed obstinate.

[dorktv]

7. wait a second, on the second one she has admitted it was a mistake.

[Usrename]

9. I don't think so. She says it was the right thing to do.

She says that she made the correct decision, only Bush screwed everything up. At least that's the way I heard it.

[TheWraith]

29. She couches it in "If I'd known then what I know now" type language.

And the old justifications like "Everyone thought Saddam had WMDs, everybody thought we needed to prevent another 9/11."

Which completely ignores the fact that she should have known better than to vote for it THEN, knowing what she did. Which means she either endorsed the war for her own political benefit, or else she was completely clueless and naive as to the facts. I personally don't think she was naive or clueless.

[Usrename]

30. I think she believes in the whole Bush Doctrine.

Ever since I came to that conclusion a couple of years ago, I haven't heard her say anything that would make me think otherwise.

[hendo]

34. Yup

The Clinton's practically left any argument Bush would need to invade Iraq, he just took it and ran with it.

[Ian_rd]

10. Pretty weak.

1. It's hard to steal the "change" credentials if you're a party insider and the wife of a former president.

2. She "trusted" Bush? I doubt that kind of naivete would inspire confidence in her campaign.

3. ... and it would be hard to make that argument after standing by her vote for so long.

4. ... and it would almost certainly be a lie as her vote was most likely (I feel) a political calculation to not look like a week, scared liberal in the face of terror while Bush was equated as a brave protector by the media.

[hendo]

response to 2.

Most of the senators voted to go to war with Iraq. In fact, it passed 77-23 in the senate and 296-133 in the house.

That everyone else fell for it isnt an excuse, just saying.

[hendo]

35. duplicat n/t

edit: deleted the duplicate.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Nah - had no chance of winning. She painted herself into a corner with the war vote...

and the experience (= status quo insider) thing.

You can't be the change candidate when you're all about your D.C. experience.

You can''t be the experience candidate when your singular experience claim to fame is being WRONG on the war vote.

She really had nowhere to go, after losing super Tuesday.

[krkaufman]

13. Ummm... she *did* use that "trusted the President" excuse for her Iraq vote

The only problem is, she wasn't trusting and relying on some imaginary ideal of President; she was putting the final call on going to war into the hands of George W Bush, a man who'd already shown disdain for international law and had already, *clearly* made his mind up about invading Iraq but was only awaiting something to use as a legal justification.

[AllentownJake]

14. I think in one of her many incarnations

She said both those things...maybe not at the same time though.

[susankh4]

15. She did say these things.

I heard them.

Where were you?

[EFerrari]

18. When did she admit that vote was a mistake? n/t

[susankh4]

19. She said that she regretted giving Bush power that he abused.

[EFerrari]

20. But she has yet to say it was a mistake, is that right?

[susankh4]

21. Regret = Mistake

What don't you understand.

We don't regret the things we do well. Do we?

[EFerrari]

22. That's what I thought. n/t

[susankh4]

23. Me too.

Poor understanding of the English language.

[EFerrari]

24. Must be it. Why the UC Regents had me teaching college English

is a mystery to me. :)

[susankh4]

25. As well it should be.

[EFerrari]

26. I regret to inform you, regret is an expression of distress

not an admission of error. And while Hillary may believe that any time she is distressed an error has occurred, that's not the way the word works in English no matter how much her supporters might wish it did.

[susankh4]

27. It was not a "mistake."

It was a regrettable error.

And because your inexperienced candidate wasn't asked to vote on the IWR... we will never know how he would have decided.

The only regret I have now is that the party cannot move on ... and do what it needs to do to correct Bush's mistakes.

[EFerrari]

32. A regrettable error? Millions of people marched and spoke out

ahead of that "regrettable error". Including experts like Ritter and Blix. To be fair, Ritter and Blix were not preparing a presidential run that would be required to prove their willingness to obliterate innocent people.

I hope that Senator Clinton has a more appropriate term for the million Iraqi dead, the millions displaced and for the thousands of our own dead and disabled than "regrettable error". It seems so stingy.

But, by all means, let's move on.

[EFerrari]

38. So even now, you claim that vote wasn't a mistake?

That clears things up even more. I'm sure the millions of people who are dead, maimed and displaced appreciate the distinction.

[BlooInBloo]

31. She said that she would make the same vote in the same situation....

That's the OPPOSITE of learning from a mistake.

[TheWraith]

28. Um... no. She didn't.

In fact, she very explicitly refused in any way to say that the IWR vote was a mistake: she told an anti-war questioner in NH that if they wanted to vote for somebody who said it was a mistake, to go elsewhere.

[JBoy]

16. The same impulse that made her think she needed to vote for the IWR in the first place,

the need to appear "strong", is the same thing that prevents her from admitting she made a mistake. Same thing that makes her think it's a good idea to threaten Iran with obliteration.

A fundamental character flaw, IMO.

[hokies4ever]

36. She HASN'T learned from her Iraq vote 'mistake'

How else do you explain her vote for the Kyl-Lieberman agreement? It seems to me that she's trying to look hawkish in order to dispel any notions of a weak-willed female commander-in-chief.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

37. I agree totally on #2. I have been saying that for years - push it

on Bush. Hell, who would have ever thought a president would
sent people to death for some lying cause?