Cheap shot from a desperate Clinton

The day before today's New Hampshire primary, Hillary Clinton desperately searched for issues she could use against Barack Obama. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of attacking him for what she called his inconsistent record on the Iraq war.

Remember, Obama, as an Illinois state senator, opposed the war in 2002, and Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, voted to give President Bush the authority to go to war against Iraq. You would think Iraq would be the last issue Clinton would raise against Obama, who has tapped into a public hunger for change in Washington.

"If you make a speech, and a very good speech, against the war in Iraq in 2002, and then by 2004 you're saying you're not sure how you would have voted, and by 2005, 2006, 2007 you vote for the $300-billion for the war you said you were against, that's not change," she told one audience.

Was Clinton, who has repeatedly voted to fund the war, criticizing Obama for supporting U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq? By the time Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, the war he opposed was under way, and it is to his credit that he voted against cutting off funds for armor, equipment and other military needs.

The kindest way to view Clinton's cheap shot is to assume the physical exhaustion of a grueling campaign schedule finally caught up with her.

[Last modified January 8, 2008, 01:29:28]