Presidential Bona Fides And Nuance

The shifting landscape and power centers in politics were proven in the last election when netroots candidates performed better than all of the mavens in Washington thought they would. As has been well documented across the blogosphere, the old-time power brokers and thinking class are running scared. Bush would not have "won" the first and absolutely would not have won his second term but for that same class of people telling the candidates to dive to the center. What do we end up with? Candidates who stand for absolutely nothing---does anyone remember I was for it before I was against it?

And so it is, on this meaningless little rag that I will say the main reason I will not support Hillary Clinton as she scratches for votes in the primary season is because of her support for the Iraq war before she was against it. Now I know she isn't alone and that many of the candidates have mixed records on how they voted and where they stand now. I know she had to prove herself a serious military and foreign policy thinker before she could make this run, but as Kerry proved in the last election, nuance doesn't sell well. I'm sorry, but I ain't buyin'.

Oh, and for the record, here is the roll call vote in the Senate on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq. Read it and weep.