Obama: "I have enough experience to know that if you have a national intelligence estimate......

[TeamJordan23]

then you should probably read it.”

Obama: Clinton should have read more in 2002
by John McCormick

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – Responding to comments made by Hillary Clinton earlier today in the same town, Barack Obama had his shots ready when he arrived at a high school gymnasium for a Sunday afternoon event.

"Sen. Clinton continues to insist that we provide speeches and she provides solutions," he said. "The press has sort of bought into this, I think, because they, you know, want to keep the contest interesting, and I understand that."

But Obama said he has provided specifics on "every issue under the sun" and that her claims of foreign-policy experience are overblown.

"She has, supposedly, all this vast foreign policy experience," he said. "I have to say, when it came to making the most important foreign policy decision of our generation -- the decision to invade Iraq -- Sen. Clinton got it wrong. She didn't read the nation intelligence estimates…I have enough experience to know that if you have a national intelligence estimate, and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says you should read this -- this is why I'm voting against the war -- then you should probably read it."

Obama called on Clinton to offer more specifics of her own as he spoke to what his campaign said was an audience of more than 3,000 inside and outside the school.

"We're still waiting to hear Sen. Clinton tell us what precise foreign policy experience that she is claiming that makes her prepared to answer that phone call at three in the morning," he said.

Candice Swords, a stay-at-home mother from Westerville, went to both the Clinton and Obama events. She described herself as a "life-long Clinton supporter," who even named her 9-year-old daughter Chelsea, after the former first daughter.

But, she said, she plans to vote for Obama.

"Hillary is tied to lobbyists and when you take money from lobbyists, you owe them," she said. "He's fresh. He's new. He's change."

The schools where the two candidates appeared reflected the demographic aspects of their appeals. Obama was at the relatively new Westerville Central High School, while Clinton was at the older Westerville North High School.

As much as she likes Clinton, Swords said she believes Obama has a better chance fixing the nation's ills. "The experience part of her is nice, but I prefer the change Obama could offer," she said.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/by_john_mccormick_westerville.html

[FrenchieCat]

1. Hillary's been

BUSTED!

[blogslut]

2. There it is

The truth. Hillary Clinton did not read the NIE. She voted for the IWR and didn't even bother to read the intelligence document that the WH used as justification for the IWR.

And now she acts the unapologetic victim of bad information.

It would be comical if people weren't dead.

[cliffordu]

9. Yeah, It'd be real funny if a LOT of people weren't dead.

[Lucinda]

3. She was briefed by the people that wrote it. Did he read the NIE

about the IRG?
If so, why didn't he vote?

[blogslut]

12. She was briefed

Big deal. She could have gone to that special room, sat her fanny down and read the document. Dick Durbin did. Why didn't Hillary?

[Lucinda]

18. I don't think she would have come to a different solution

by reading their words instead of interacting with them directly.

[blogslut]

19. How come Dick Durbin and Bob Graham did?

Both men read the NIE and voted Nay to the IWR.

[Lucinda]

21. And others who did read it voted as Hillary did. It's fine to disagree with her choice

but I think it's disingenuous to imply she wasn't informed on the NIE contents.

She was absolutely wrong in thinking that Bush and his cronies would not act upon their own agenda.

[blogslut]

22. The difference is her lack of remorse

She simply cannot justify this vote without acknowleging she did not perform her due diligence.

[Lucinda]

23. She has said a million times that she felt that she made

the best decision she could under the circumstances, and that she would have never made that choice if she knew then, what she knows now.

I must say, your assessment about her personal feelings of remorse are astounding. Does your psychic ability work with numbers too? I'd love to know the next TN lottery numbers. :)

[blogslut]

25. I'm just going by the woman's public statements

She has said a few times that if she knew then what she knows now...

She has never said she was sorry or that she regrets that she allowed herself to be fooled. She had the opportunity to know more than she chose to know and she blew it.

[Lucinda]

26. How does reading the NIE equal "knowing more" than sitting down with it's authors?

[blogslut]

30. I don't know.

Because authors always try to put their conclusions in the best possible light? How about you ask Richard Durbin or Bob Graham? I'm sure they'll be happy to tell you the difference.

[DearAbby]

31. So with a decision that has cost thousands of lives

she didn't feel it was important enough to take the time to actually read the report. Instead asked the authors for a "Reader's digest" version, because she had more important things to do?


what would you rather do, watch a movie trailer, or read the book, which one would be more indepth?

[Barack_America]

36. Because only by reading it yourself can you form your own interpretation.

If somebody else summarizes it for you, you are at the mercy of their own bias, of what they decide to include or exclude.

With a decision as important as going to war (or even the possibility of it), you need to fully inform yourself. IMO, there's no excuse not to.

[MindMatter]

32. But that's the problem right there.

A whole bunch of us -- MILLIONS of us -- attended rallies in January precisely because we DID KNOW that the administration story was bogus. Practically everything that has "emerged" in the past 6 years to discredit the Bush war position was ALREADY IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN in that frigid January Saturday morning.

What has come out since then is mostly just more data points to reinforce what we already knew then.

If a million of us schmucks with no security clearance had enough information to make this judgment, there is absolutely no excuse for a US Senator not knowing. Hell, she could have even (gasp) asked a question or two along the way. Senators are allowed to do that -- at least they were before they turned their responsibilities over to Bush.

It is all moot point now. She will pay the price on Tuesday. The price of trying to finesse and "Clinton" her way through the most important decision of our generation -- a generation that has already ruined tens of thousands of American lives and put us at greater risk for at least another generation.

To err is human. To try to "Clinton" your way out of it is not acceptable. If she would have owned her decision from the start instead of making up that bullshit answer, she probably would have won this nomination.

But when you are a Clinton, I guess you get accustomed to doing things that way.

[LiberalAndProud]

20. It's wise to read the fine print before you buy a war.

There just is no good way to spin this.

[Perky]

35. She trusted Bushco spin when Dems were warning about the war of conveniencem. It is inexcusable.

That is the difference between Obama and Clinton thatis just astouinding Obama did not read the NIE and knew it was going to be a huge clusterfuck. Hillary had the chance to read it. abc shose intellectual laxiness and bush spin instead.



It is inexcusable.

[Maribelle]

4. Senator Bob Graham, the only Democratic senator to vote against the IWR and the two amendments ...

told us why he voted the way he did.

It appears Obama could care less about the truth, and truly does not know what he is talking about. Maybe Obama should do some research on what Graham said.

[blonndee]

5. BAM!!

As always, he is right on target.

[butterfly77]

6. Damn, another good one!

[redstate_democrat]

7. He is right on

Hillary claims to have been duped into voting for the war. How can one be duped when they just simply failed to read the intelligence on the issue? That's not called being misled,; that's called negligence.

[Cha]

8. Wowzer! Obama has so many

facts to work with when answering hilary's bogus attacks..he has a gold mine at his disposal.

[bigtree]

10. I wonder if he's read it since,

and, if he can tell us what was in the full document which wasn't covered in the summary Sen. Clinton said she read.

Also, in her role on the Armed Services Committee, Clinton has had access to other sources of information other than the administration-generated intelligence report Obama is so enamored of, and she has said that she consulted those other sources, including questioning the administration officials who generated the report, obviously, from a position of dissent of the administration's intention to push to preemptively invade, as she expressed throughout.

[Lerkfish]

16. then why would she vote for it?

I mean, really. I don't get what you're alluding to. She admitted condi asked her if she had any questions and she said no.
I'd like to know exactly what "extra" information she had access to, because I could tell, lowly little me not on any committee, that the bush administration was lying.

so, are you saying she read false material and believed it without investigation, or are you saying she knew it was false but voted to invade regardless?

either way, she's either naive, incompetent or complicit with the AIPAC/neocon agenda in the region.

she ABSOLUTELY was not correct. so the issue only becomes WHY she was so wrong.

[bigtree]

17. ring around the rosie.

I don't put as much stock in the entirety of an administration generated 'intelligence' report as some folks do. I certainly wouldn't use that report as my only source of info.

edit: It's good for pointing up contradictions in administration policy or pronouncements.

[Lerkfish]

24. not really sure how your post is a response to my post?

but anyways, have a good day, I'll see you after tuesday, I assume.

[Window]

11. "There are 10 reasons to love Hillary and 10 reasons to hate Hillary,

and that's before you even get to 'woman.'"

Just heard that on IFC News. I had my back to the tv and am not sure who said it, but I believe it was John Zogby.

The OP's post is certainly one of them.

[niceypoo]

13. When will Obama start talking about policy?

Just wondering...

Thus far he has defined himself as an anti-Hillary, when does he define himself as Barak Obama??

[GoreVidalIsGod]

14. Zing!

The man thinks on his feet -- and how!

[Window]

15. Sweet!

[Tennessee Gal]

27. Believe it or not.

The speech he gave showed that Obama would have been opposed to a war in Iraq from what he knew at the time. That's not the same as being opposed to the Iraq War Resolution that gave the President the authority to go to war as a supposed last resort. Had Obama said something to the effect of being opposed to a war in Iraq "even as a last resort" or "under any circumstance", then that would be proof that he wouldn't of voted for the Resolution. But he said no such thing.

[DemBones DemBones]

28. Big difference, isn't it?

Why can't they see that? Are they mainlining the Kool-Aid? :shrug:

[Tennessee Gal]

29. Yep, a big, big diffence. Kool-Aid must lend itself to blinding the consumers.

[MindMatter]

33. Are you serious?

I read your message three times looking for the <sarcasm> marker.

So I guess you are serious. Not very well informed, but serious. EVERYBODY understood that Bush intended to go to war and that was his intention with the resolution. By the time that resolution was passed Cheney and Rice were already well into their "mushroom cloud" phase and the pentagon was already deep into deployment preparations.

Clinton pulling a Hear-no-evil, see-no-evil routine now if an absolute insult to the intelligence of anybody who paid even the slightest bit of attention during that period. If she didn't know the score, then she most certainly is not qualified for the Presidency.

Come on. We all know she is smarter than that. She is simply lying now.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

34. she couldn't help it, why is everyone picking on her, its hard!!!

:sarcasm: