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Hillarysworld -> Hillary 2012 -> Afghan war may be key to 2012 Clinton candidacy (Wash. Examiner 7/18/10)
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TOPIC: Afghan war may be key to 2012 Clinton candidacy (Wash. Examiner 7/18/10)
Jen the Michigander


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Afghan war may be key to 2012 Clinton candidacy (Wash. Examiner 7/18/10)
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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Afghan-war-may-be-key-to-2012-Clinton-candidacy-1001466-98710284.html

What will it take to get Hillary Clinton into a 2012 run?

The answer can be found in the top item on the secretary of state's itinerary this week: Afghanistan.

She is spending a few days in Afghanistan to get a sense of the mounting problems for the U.S. mission there.

And according to some longtime Clinton backers, including one veteran of the Clinton Democratic National Committee, the Afghan war is the catalyst that could start Clinton toward a 2012 run.

But if Petraeus lets it be known next spring that he needs another 30,000 troops and asks Obama to officially push back the start of the U.S. withdrawal, the president will have to choose whether to consent and shatter his liberal coalition or refuse and lose all those who grudgingly support his war.

That's some choice -- agree and lose your base, or refuse and lose your ability to prosecute the war, and, by extension, your credibility as a leader.

Which brings us back to Secretary Clinton.

If Democrats take a pasting this fall, it will be widely seen as a repudiation of Obama. The national economic malaise and independent anger about government overreach have rehabilitated the Clintons' "third way" in Democratic circles.

Regret at having passed over Hillary in 2008 will reach a new high in November. And with Obama leaning on Bill to act as his emissary to the frustrated middle class, the Clintons' reputation will be further restored.

The Democrats rooting for Hillary to knock out Obama in 2012 say she must begin her pivot by early next year. First, she must leave the administration on friendly terms. Then, she can carefully start to express misgivings about Obama's Afghan policies.

Obama thought he would better control Hillary by refusing her the vice presidency. But by exiling her to the State Department, Obama has allowed his rival to shore up the one weak spot on her resume -- foreign policy experience.

Obama has painted himself into a corner with his Afghan timetable. And come next spring, Clinton friends could start the chorus of pleas for her to try again to break the "highest, hardest glass ceiling."

The message: "Only Hillary can bring the troops home."

That would leave Clinton able to bring together doves who want the war over by any means necessary and the growing number who support Vice President Biden's strategy of maintaining a small, deadly force in the region but abandoning full-scale nation-building in the Obama style.

That would have some nice symmetry to it.

Obama won the Democratic nomination by pummeling Hillary with her initial support for the Iraq war.

She might like to return the favor on Afghanistan.



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Hillarysmygirl16


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LOL The doves supporting Hillary.  It won't happen.  Good article but Hillary is still to Hawkish.  What will happen is the Doves will stay home and she will still win.

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Jen the Michigander


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No, Hillary can't paint herself as a dove at this point in her life. This ain't the 1960s! I think her best bet is to dispense with ideology and make it an issue of her general competence vs. Obama's incompetence. Then she can continue with a variation on that theme if she has to run against Palin or some other relatively inexperienced Repub.

I wonder who is the unnamed Clinton DNC veteran quoted in the article?

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