Sunday, September 23, 2007

In last week's resolution that saluted Gen. David Petraeus and denounced MoveOn for calling him "General Betray Us," in a newspaper ad, Clinton's no vote was one of only 25, with 72 senators voting yes.

It is a sorry spectacle, and incomprehensible because her lurch is wrong in terms of policy and politically unnecessary. The far-left wing does not elect Presidents or usually even pick nominees. Ask Howard Dean.

And Clinton knows she is under additional scrutiny because she is the only woman ever to get this close to being elected President. Fairly or not, women, especially Democratic women who tilt left, are suspect on whether they will be social workers or commanders in chief in a security crunch. Now it will be much harder for her to convince skeptics.

Tellingly, Clinton voted for an earlier resolution Thursday that was almost identical to the one that passed except that it did not mention MoveOn. That resolution failed.

On September 20, 2007, Senator Hillary Clinton voted for a convoluted Democratic resolution to condemn (without naming it) the ad in which MoveOn.org referred to the U.S. commander in Iraq as "General Betray Us," while also condemning attack ads from Max Cleland's 2002 Senate race and John Kerry's 2004 presidential run.(Power Line's John Hinderaker noted: "So, in the Democrats' view, General Petraeus is just another politician and MoveOn's slander is just another campaign ad.") The measure failed to get the requisite 60 votes.

While Iraq is a deeply unpopular war, that is primarily because we are not winning. If the surge continues to curb violence, and if the Iraqi government gets its act together, the nation's mood could shift and Clinton could find herself in a lonely hole a year from now.