That isn’t a startling headline since it’s parroted by practically every presidential candidate. This quote will haunt her during next fall’s campaign, though:
“It cannot be American policy, period,” Clinton (D-N.Y.) told debate moderator Tim Russert, who asked if there should be a presidential exemption to allow the torture of a terror chieftain if authorities knew a bomb was about to go off, but didn’t know where it was.
That definitive statement will cause Hillary lots of problems next fall because she all but admitted that she won’t do everything in her power to protect Americans from future terrorist attacks. While the anti-torture position is popular inside the Beltway, it isn’t popular in the Heartland. People that I talk with want the feds to do everything in their power to protect us.
When Russert revealed ex-President Bill Clinton advocated such a policy on a recent NBC “Meet the Press” appearance, Hillary Clinton won huge applause from the Dartmouth College audience with a deadpan comeback:
“Well, I’ll talk to him later.”
She may have to give herself that talk, too.
Last October, Clinton told the Daily News: “If we’re going to bepreparing for the kind of improbable but possible eventuality, then it has to be done within the rule of law.”
She said then the “ticking time bomb” scenario represents a narrow exception to her opposition to torture as morally wrong, ineffective and dangerous to American soldiers.
“In the event we were ever confronted with having to interrogate a detainee with knowledge of an imminent threat to millions of Americans, then the decision to depart from standard international practices must be made by the President, and the President must be held accountable,” she said.
If this were any other issue, people might say that this is just another example of a politician talking out both sides of her mouth. But this isn’t just any issue. That answer isn’t the way to convince people that you’re serious about a president’s first affirmative duty: to protect the people from all enemies. In fact, it isn’t a stretch to think that she doesn’t know what she’d do if that situation presented itself. That’s hardly the type of position Hillary wants to put herself in.
Hillary’s mistake wasn’t the only dumb answer given last night:
The ex-New York mayor came under fire for voicing his readiness to attack Iran to keep it from developing nuclear weapons. Clinton was accused by some of her rivals of playing into President Bush’s hands by voting for an anti-Iran Senate resolution.
“I think what Mayor Giuliani said was irresponsible, because we have not yet come to that point,” said Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), arguing there is a lot of diplomacy to be done first.
“Rudy Giuliani doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about,” zinged Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.). “He’s the most uninformed person on American foreign policy now running forPresident.”
Having Joe Biden say that Rudy doesn’t know what he’s talking about highlights Sen. Biden’s stupidity. Most people don’t take him seriously as a presidential candidate. In fact, some think he’s really running for Vice President. If Hillary or Obama get the nomination, the biggest mistake they could make is naming an ill-infomred loose cannon like Sen. Biden to be their running mate.
Technorati: Hillary, Terrorism, Torture, Joe Biden, Obama, Presidential Debate, Rudy Giuliani, Election 2008
Cross-posted at California Conservative