On Admitting Mistakes

Over at DownWithTyranny! there is discussion of today's column by Paul Krugman regarding the art of admitting mistakes and the consequences of failing to do so. Krugman's theory regarding Hillary Clinton is no surprise: she's letting her handlers make the decision for her whether to admit she fucked up by voting for the AUMF. It is no surprise because she is a Clinton. She moved into the White House in large measure because her husband was elected and re-elected with the help of the old political machine (the same machine that lost the last two presidential elections).

She isn't ready to let go of that teat which has helped her win a second term in the senate and raise tens of millions of dollars. As Krugman said:

In truth, it's the second issue, not the first, that worries me about Mrs. Clinton. Although she's smart and sensible, she's very much the candidate of the Beltway establishment--an establishment that has yet to come to terms with its own failure of nerve and judgment over Iraq. Still, she's at worst a triangulator, not a megalomaniac; she's not another Dick Cheney.

Yep, I think that about sums it up but I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that in time she will relent not because she thinks admitting a mistake is a good thing, but because she is, at the end of the day, a politician. Here are the reasons I think this will happen. First, she is going to get her brains beat in for failing to admit what every single thinking person in the world knows: it was a mistke. Period. But there is another reason that I believe her hand will be forced on this issue. Things are getting worse day-by-day in Iraq and they are not going to get better--even if we leave today. The situation will get worse no matter what we do, but as long as we are there our soldiers will be dying.

And that is why she will finally relent and admit the error of her ways. For the record I do not want her to figure it out anytime soon. I would rather Edwards and Obama have all the ammunition they need to beat her over the head with it. But there you have it, my prediction that Hillary admist she should not have supported the AUMF.