Moveon.org had a virtual town meeting last night with all the all the Democratic presidential candidates. The subject was Iraq. Hillary Clinton gave the correct answer on the supplemental bill.
You know, Eli, I don’t think we should tell President Bush what we will do if he vetoes this legislation, we need to keep the pressure on him not to veto it. And then we need to do everything we can, which is why I have launched this online petition drive, to have pressure put on Republicans, particularly in the Senate. Because we have to do everything possible to put pressure on the President so that we can make it absolutely undeniable that he has to reverse course.
And I think we should let the American people understand, and let President Bush fully understand, that is it is he who is rejecting funding. We have passed funding but we did it within the context of timelines. And if he can be held responsible for, in effect vetoing the funding, because he will not start to follow the will of the American people and deescalate this conflict and bring our troops home, I think that puts tremendous pressure on Republicans who are going to be running for office again in 2008.
As Democrats, now that we’re in the majority, we are finding many different means for keeping the pressure on, and I don’t want to foreclose any options right now. I am not prepared to throw in the towel and basically concede either point that he will veto it and then we have to choose one of the strategies that are really based on the premise of his veto.
So, I hope people will go to my website, hillaryclinton.com, we have tens of thousands who have already gone, to sign up on the online petition that basically challenges the President not to veto the will of Congress, and not to veto the will of the American people. I’m not going to give up on trying to force changes. I’ve seen them on the other end, and I’ve seen where pressure like what Move On started to do in the late 90s can actually have an impact. So, let’s keep the pressure on him and let everybody know that he’s the one who is vetoing funding for American troops because he will not begin to bring them home.
I don’t know why Barack Obama and Carl Levin have such a hard time understanding this basic logic.
If Hillary scored points on the supplemental bill, Bill Richardson scored points for the following:
“If I were President today I would withdrawal American troops from Iraq by the end of this calender year. I would have no residual forces whatsoever.”
You can watch his whole statement here.
This is an important statement that differentiates Richardson from the other candidates. It reminds me of when Jon Tester said, ‘I don’t want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it.’ Most Democrats are afraid to say something like that. Tester wasn’t. Richardson isn’t. And that is valuable.
Bill Richardson has distinguished himself by his ability to work in a very positive manner with the Bush administration to make actual progress in dealing with a very difficult North Korean regime. Ordinarily, I don’t look at work with the Bush administration as a positive, but in this case Richardson deserves nothing but praise.
Richardson definitely has the best foreign policy credentials of any of the Democratic contenders and he deserves an honest look by Democrats. He’d also make an outstanding choice for Vice-President. He might deliver New Mexico, as well as help throughout the southwest. And he would be a steady adviser and emissary that is trusted and respected all around the world.
