As Clinton criticized Bush's Naval Academy speech "The President ... focuses on training Iraq security forces...That's very important, but I think we have to look in the broader context. We need a political, diplomatic and international strategy as well as a military one." The NY Daily News and the NY Post tear into her for not going "far" left or "far" right on Iraq.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/370573p-315227c.htmlHil takes rights & lefts on fighting
BY ADAM NICHOLS DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
It's not only President Bush who's getting flak over Iraq. Sen. Hillary Clinton's war stance is also coming under fire from the right and left. The former First Lady told supporters this week she stood by her vote to support the invasion of Iraq, but claimed she had been misled by "false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war."
The Republican challenger for Clinton's Senate seat Jeanine Pirro said the statement was a refusal by Clinton to accept responsibility for her support of the war. "Once again, Hillary Clinton has new talking points on Iraq. It's time she stop shifting blame in an effort to position herself for the presidency, and take full responsibility for her actions," Pirro said.
Even Clinton's traditional liberal base ripped her refusal to condemn the war. "This statement is an attempt to make nice with her political base, but Hillary Clinton is out of touch with her constituents," said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for New York-based anti-war group United for Peace and Justice. "This city does not support the war. She has not only failed to stop it, but she has rubber-stamped it. Now she's feeling the heat, which is why she has put out this statement."<snip>
http://www.nypost.com/commentary/58354.htmWAR PLACES HILL IN A POLITICAL NO-MAN'S-LAND
By DEBORAH ORIN
December 1, 2005 -- SEN. Hillary Clinton is suddenly getting scrunched in a squeeze play of her own making on Iraq — because it's an issue where her husband's old grab-the-center strategy just doesn't work.
For much of 2005, pundits hailed Sen. Clinton's smarts for edging to the center on issues like abortion and supporting the Iraq war, saying she was setting herself up as a more moderate figure who could woo swing voters in 2008.