Bloodless Coup

Hilzoy's Case Against Hillary Clinton

Hilzoy raises two primary reasons she opposes Sen. Clinton. The second has to do with the tone of politics, and her argument on that merits being read in full. A thumbnail sketch of it would be incomplete. But her first argument is, to me, persuasive on its own.

Whether she voted as she did because she thought it was right or because she thought that George W. Bush was trustworthy enough that Congress could authorize him to go to war confident in the knowledge that he would not abuse that power, that vote, the most important she cast as a Senator, was disastrously wrong. Moreover, she didn't just vote for the Iraq War Resolution; she voted against the Levin Amendment, which would have required Bush to go back to the UN for authorization to use military force. And she cast this vote without having bothered to read the relevant National Intelligence Estimate. Which is to say: she took the decision whether or not to go to war - to invade another country, and to put both Iraqi citizens and members of our military in harm's way - without bothering to do her homework first.

I find it remarkable that Sen. Clinton has 1) lasted this long in the campaign without these matters being brought more fully to light for the American people, and 2) dares raise the Iraq issue in regards to Sen. Obama given her own grevious record, failing the American people by not doing her homework before voting to give George Bush unchecked powers to prosecute an amazingly costly war of choice. I find it most perplexing that Sen. Obama's camp is not running an ad on this as we speak. If she's going to impugn his record on Iraq hers is fair game - and her record on it is horrible.

UPDATE: Per Binky's comment, you can find the Obama memo here.