Democracy for Vancouver

Senator Clinton defends her vote for the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Saddam as a vote to get the weapons inspectors back into Iraq. It will be interesting to see whether Senator Chuck Hagle (R-NE) would corroborate Clinton’s claim that he sold this as an attempt to use the threat of military force to get inspectors back into Iraq as she claimed during her appearance on Meet the Press today.

Senator Clinton’s explanation for her vote reconciles with my recollection of how the vote for AUMF was sold by the White House and Republicans in Congress to their Democratic counterparts, the media, and the American people. But why did we have to wait so long to hear this explanation? Why didn’t the voters get to hear this during the 2006 election season, and her re-election campaign? Did we just miss it because of the usual media laziness?

In any case Sen. Clinton’s putting her vote in the context of putting weapons inspectors back into Iraq makes it a lot easier to cast a vote for her in the general election should she win the Democratic nomination for President. She is, however, my least favorite Democrat running for President and I remain no less committed to working for having a much better choice for President in November.