Bill Clinton Defends Wife's Iraq Vote--Sort of

The Hill is reporting:

Former President Bill Clinton yesterday complained that "it’s just not fair" the way his wife, presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), is being depicted for her controversial Iraq war vote.

Speaking to hundreds of supporters on conference call, the former president said, "I don’t have a problem with anything Barack Obama [has] said on this," but "to characterize Hillary and Obama’s positions on the war as polar opposites is ludicrous.

"This dichotomy that’s been set up to allow him to become the raging hero of the anti-war crowd on the Internet is just factually inaccurate."

The ex-president’s aggressive defense of his wife’s position revealed frustration in the Clinton camp over how the issue is playing into the already-overheated presidential campaign.

On a conference call with Hillraisers, Sen. Clinton’s biggest donors, which The Hill listened to after being provided the call-in information, the former president said there was a stark difference between those who voted for the Iraq resolution and those who wanted to go to war.

In response to a question from one of the supporters on the phone about explaining Hillary Clinton’s Iraq vote to undecided voters, the former president jumped in front of former Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe, saying, "Let me answer this."

He said he had re-read the Iraq resolution last week, and that his wife had voted only for "coercive inspections." Clinton justified his wife’s refusal to apologize for her vote by explaining that she was acting out of concern that future presidents might need similar language authorizing "coercive inspections to avoid conflict."

"It’s just not fair to say that people who voted for the resolution wanted war," Clinton said.

This is some mighty interesting spin--voting for "coercive inspections." Just how was the United States to undertake those coercive inspections? Oh yeah, with military force.

While I admire the creative spin attempt, it is absolutely ludicrous to view the Resolution authorizing the use of military force as anything other than an authroization to use military force. No matter what Hillary Clinton is saying now, her speeches and rhetoric leading up to and immediately after the vote made clear that she was willing to go to war. Now that she has been "mislead" by the President, and is no longer happen with the President's handling of the war, she feels the need spin further.

As I said before, Obama gets a pass on the Iraq war vote because he was not in office. But Hillary Clinton shouldn't take a beating on this, but she should come clean. As I said before, her best approach would be to simply say, "yep, I voted for the authorization of military force. I made that decision based on information we had at the time. Everyday we make decisions without all the information and some information that is not accurate. We can't go back and change the decision, we can only move forward with our plans to change the situation. I regret my vote, but I don't doubt my vote."

Of course the looney left will go nuts because she is not apologizing for her vote, but it is the truth and in the end, that is far better than the spin we are not getting.