What is this "repent" ferver?

[question everything]

Like most in the country - but perhaps not in DU - Clinton supported invading Iraq based on what was presented to her.

She now says so. But.. no. Like a Christian revival meeting she has to "repent." She has to pound her chest and cry "mea culpa." She has to drop on her knees and ask for forgiveness.

I don't know that I will vote for her in my caucus, but "demanding" - as was reported by a New Hampshire "primary voter", and on these pages - that she express her regret is simply dumb, mean, stupid, and petty. I hope that she sticks to her guns.

[Az]

1. Marketting

The current marketting trends suggests that begging for forgiveness is the current hot thing. So politicians being the market created animals they are must jump on board and be all the repenting they can be.

[Missy M]

2. I too hope she sticks to her guns....

I'm glad she has addressed it and that should be enough.

[rodeodance]

4. yes, time to move on. It gets real old real fast.

[elehhhhna]

3. "I was LIED to" might be a start.

[patrice]

5. To those whom much is given, much is expected.

BUT - she doesn't have to do the ridiculous things you suggest.

I need to understand why I should trust her. If she would tell me more about how, why she voted as she did, that would help. How is anyone to know she won't make the same errors again?

Yeah, a lot of others got off with a "I was lied to . . . " when the rest of us heard the same lies and weren't fooled. I just expected much more from her (Did you hear her speech the day of the vote on 114?), so I am much more disappointed.

No one wants to debase anyone. We'd just like to be respected with the truth. She'll receive what she gives.

[question everything]

9. I am sure that we will hear more during a debate

especially with Obama and Edwards

[JeffR]

6. She can do or say whatever she wants to

and each one of us will judge her according to our own convictions. It's pretty much as simple as that, IMO.

[sandnsea]

7. Clinton was doing the presenting

OTHER people voted based on what the CLINTON people told them. You've got it all backwards. That's why Hillary can't really go down the 'lied' path, other people were depending on the Clintons to tell the truth and they put Hillary's presidential ambitions first. The Clinton people should have come out stronger against the 'intelligence' Bush was spewing at the time.

[paulk]

8. with it becoming increasingly apparent

the extent to which the Bush junta manipulated the intelligence that led us into Iraq -

and considering that there's going to be a lot more of the same coming out through Congressional investigations and trials over the next year and a half-

I'm beginning to think that Hillary's policy of not apologizing for being lied to is the correct tactic.

[Parisle]

10. HORSE SHIT

--- The "extent to which the Bush junta manipulated the intelligence" didn't fool anybody who was paying attention. It didn't fool me, nor did it fool a single member of congress. They ALL knew it was a lie,... but they worried that it would be a lie that successfully fooled enough Americans that a NO vote would be seen as unpatriotic political suicide. Political expedience explains all those pro-AUMF votes,... and anyone saying anything different is a liar or a fool. They allowed themselves to be intimidated, plain and simple. They put their political careers above doing the right thing for America, plain and simple.

--- But I'll agree with you that Hillary's "policy" of not apologizing is the right "tactic." Insincere apologies aren't worth very much, are they?

[paulk]

13. if you expect politics to be a game played with "sincerity"

then you are going to be forever disappointed.

[The Magistrate]

11. An Excellent Point, Sir

The largest voting bloc in the country today consists of people who supported the invasion of Iraq, more or less believing it needed doing and would end in victory, and who now think the enterprise a failure,a nd that they were misled into supporting it. They do not think they have anything to apologize for. They will identify with a political figure who says about what they say themselves: "If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have acted differently."

[Adelante]

12. I don't think anybody has to apologize

I don't think these apologies mean a thing in the long run, as they mean nothing in the short run. I think Hillary's strategy is the best for her. However, I think feelings have hardened since 2004 against the war voters, as they have against the war generally. Too much has happened in those couple of years and too much has come to be known. This will only spread once the voters begin to tune into primary coverage. In the long run, nobody who voted for the Iraq War and is running for president will be immune from criticism of the judgment they made. The general public will decide in the end whether or not to hold our nominee responsible in a way that diminishes the recently regained strength of the Democratic vote. If they see little difference between a Republican who voted for the war and a Democrat who voted for the war, or if the Republican nominee never voted for the war and the Democratic nominee did, apologies won't mean a hill of beans.