Hillary: too “easy” to talk about cutting funding for war
Quad City (Iowa) Times - January 29, 2007
Clinton campaigns against troop surge By Ed Tibbetts | Monday, January 29, 2007
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., argued Sunday for a
pragmatic approach to stop the troop escalation in Iraq, saying it’s
easy to appeal to people with “soundbites” and calls to cut off
funding. Clinton wrapped up a two-day swing through Iowa by spending
much of the day in Davenport.
She greeted breakfast-goers at the Hickory Garden Family Restaurant,
told several hundred people at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds she
opposed the troop increase and, later, took questions at a news
conference at Central High School packed with perhaps 100 journalists.
Clinton made what she promised would be the first of many trips to
Iowa, site of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.
She announced 10 days ago she’s running for president.
Many admirers greeted her Sunday. But there were direct questions,
too, like about her 2002 vote to authorize President Bush to go to war.
Clinton, in interviews and before crowds, said she took
responsibility for her vote but claimed the president abused it and
was at the “height of irresponsibility” by saying the war would last
beyond his years in office.
She steadfastly refused to call he vote a “mistake” and said what’s
important now is that Congress build bipartisan pressure to stop the
buildup and redeploy troops.
She said cutting off funding for the troop increase isn’t the answer.
“It is easy to have a soundbite and say something that is emotionally
gratifying,” Clinton said, but a bipartisan vote of disapproval would
“send a very clear message to the White House.”
“This is an evolving policy,” she said in an interview with the Quad-
City Times. “We’re working hard to do anything that gets the
president’s attention.”
Other Democratic presidential candidates, such as John Edwards and
Tom Vilsack, have called for a more-forceful approach.
Clinton was making her first trip to Davenport in years, and one of
the challenges she faces is getting past preconceptions of her.
Her unfavorable ratings in polls tend to be higher than other
Democratic presidential candidates.
Still, there were plenty of people willing to give her the benefit of
the doubt.
“She seems to be a lot more in touch with our needs,” said Karen
Hean, of Davenport. “The Senate has helped her.”
Donna Knoeferl, also of Davenport, already was convinced. “I’ve
followed her career. She’s the one woman famous for no one really
knowing her,” she said.
Clinton got an unexpected laugh at the fairgrounds when a questioner,
referring to terrorists in the world, asked about her experience
dealing with “evil and bad men.”
Repeating the question, Clinton said, “What in my background equips
me to deal with evil and bad men?”
That prompted growing laughter in the crowd, with Clinton smiling
herself.
After a long pause, she said, “on a slightly more serious note,” then
gave an answer on dealing with terrorists.
Later, at the news conference, Clinton was asked three times about
the incident and laughed at being “psycho-analyzed.” She brushed off
the idea, broached by a reporter, that the audience was thinking of
the well-publicized behavior of her husband.
The former first lady did conjure up memories of former President
Bill Clinton in at least this respect: She hung around the
fairgrounds long after most people left, shaking hands, signing
autographs and posing for pictures.
She also won high marks from at least one man who served in Iraq.
Eli Shetler, of Moline, said he was grateful Clinton held her
criticism of the president to a minimum because, while he thought
Bush’s performance has been lacking, “I’m ready to hear answers.”
Shetler’s 11-year-old daughter Cassie handed a large poster to
Clinton that read “Hillary Clinton. For your Future.”
Clinton signed it and gave it an A-plus, telling her to “follow your
dreams.”
“It was cool,” Cassie said.
Clinton took questions on education, trade and health care and
pledged her loyalty to ethanol, too.
In the interview with the Times she said she is now an ethanol
booster, despite her vote less than two years ago against a measure
requiring 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol be mixed with the nation’s
fuel system by 2012.
The mandate has created a greater market for the corn-based fuel.
Clinton said she opposed the measure because there were worries in
2005 that ethanol would drive up the price of gasoline in New York,
as well as other concerns. She said Sunday those concerns have been
alleviated.
“I am a very avid promoter of ethanol,” she said. “Balancing what my
obligations to New York were and what the situation is now, I have no
reservations at all.”
Clinton also continued to call for robust free trade but said it
should be “smart, pro-American trade.”
Rory Washburn, executive director of the Tri-City Building Trades
Council, said Clinton had work to do with labor but that her remarks
showed him she had their concerns in mind.
“Labor standards need to be upheld,” he said.