TRANSCRIPT: CNN did a fact check on Hillary's foreign policy experience!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on March 7, 2008 - 1:44pm.
Rapid Response
Hello Everyone:
On Thursday, March 6, Brian Todd of CNN did this fact check on Hillary Clinton's foreign policy experience which I thought was overall objective, fair, and credible:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/06/sitroom.01.html
THE SITUATION ROOM
Democrats' Money & Mud-Slinging; McCain's Seat at Title Fight; Attack at Jewish Seminary at Jerusalem; Tony Rezko Trial Begins
Aired March 6, 2008 - 16:00 ET
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: "In her battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton has been playing the experience card heavily of late, particularly in regard to her role in foreign policy.
Let's go to Brian Todd. He's doing a fact check for us on this story.
How do her claims, Brain, actually stack up with what -- with -- with what really happened?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, in some cases, we found a lack of clarity on her real involvement. But, in other cases, her claims do seem to check out fairly well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): Her campaign revived, Hillary Clinton hammers at why she says she's best equipped to take on John McCain, what she says is real experience in real-world crises that sets her apart from Barack Obama.
He counters, the media has not held her feet to the fire on foreign policy.
OBAMA: But was she negotiating treaties or agreements or was she handling crises during this period of time? My sense is, the answer is no.
TODD: Here's what we found on Senator Clinton's specific claims.
CLINTON: I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
TODD: A "Washington Post" blogger accused Senator Clinton in January of exaggerating her involvement in Northern Ireland.
But former Democratic Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who was U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, told us off camera, while Mrs. Clinton was not directly involved in negotiations, she did play a helpful role, bringing in women's groups who made a difference. Mitchell is a Democratic superdelegate and has not publicly endorsed Clinton or Obama.
Congressman Peter King, a Republican, was also involved in the Northern Ireland peace process. He recalls one late-night meeting with Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
REP. PETER KING (R-NY), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER: There was discussion of how the IRA would decommission its weapons. And I know that Senator Clinton was part of that meeting.
TODD: Another claim from Hillary Clinton:
CLINTON: I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo.
TODD: In May 1999, she was in Macedonia, visiting refugee camps near the Kosovo border and meeting Macedonia's president and prime minister. Sources with knowledge of her visit says she discussed the refugees' plights with her visitors. Not clear how much she helped, since CNN reported at the time that Macedonia reopened its border to Kosovar refugees before Mrs. Clinton's visit.
Then there's this statement about China...
CLINTON: I have been standing up against, you know, the Chinese government over women's rights and standing up for human rights in many different places.
TODD: During a 1995 visit to Beijing, Hillary Clinton made this speech at a time when her husband's administration was trying to press China on human rights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, 1995)
CLINTON: No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse, or torture.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: One other thing to remember, a former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration tells us, Mrs. Clinton did not attend NSC meetings. So, while her experience is extensive, she rarely carried an official portfolio -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Brian, thanks very much. Good reporting from you, as usual..."
Here is the CNN link to this story:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/06/clinton.foreign.fact/
updated 5:40 p.m. EST, Thu March 6, 2008
A fact check on Clinton's foreign policy claims
My conclusion of this fact check is that Hillary Clinton definitely brings a record of solid accomplishments to this campaign while Obama brings absolutely no serious record of foreign policy experience to this campaign except for what he admitted to which is "Probably the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact that I spent four years living overseas when I was a child in Asia—Southeast Asia:"
Here is where this ridiculous quote from Barack Obama is credibly documented:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/20/clinton-hits-obama-on-foreign-relations-experience/
November 20, 2007
Clinton hits Obama on foreign relations experience
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/13948
Obama said strongest foreign relations experience was living overseas as a child
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on November 21, 2007 - 9:17am.
To try and counter the real issues of Hillary's proven foreign policy experience and his own lack of any serious foreign policy experience, Barack Obama continually uses two diversionary tactics to try and take attention away from these issues which are his talking about the lack of need for "Washington experience" (which has little to nothing to do with foreign policy experience) and bringing up Hillary's 2002 Iraq War Resolution vote.
Here is where I fully document how that Obama is trying to use "Washington experience" to try and divert attention away from the real issue of his lack of serious foreign policy experience:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/10998
ANALYSIS: Obama is trying to shift attention away from Foreign Policy Experience
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on February 9, 2007 - 3:24pm.
Here is why Obama's lack of serious foreign policy experience is such a serious issue and why I definitely think that it will make him unelectable in the general election if he is the nominee:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/10547
Obama to explore 2008 White House run; EXPERIENCE MATTERS: Look at Bush in 2000!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on January 16, 2007 - 5:38pm.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/11596
TRANSCRIPT & ANALYSIS: Larry King specifically asks Obama about his "experience"
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on March 27, 2007 - 3:41pm.
As far as Hillary's vote on the 2002 Iraq War Resolution goes, Obama has many Democratic members of Congress who are supporting him right now including John Kerry who also voted for that resolution. I do not hear Obama criticizing them very much or rejecting their support because they voted the same way that Hillary did back in 2002!
But the main issue in my opinion is NOT so much what happened in 2002 but it is rather what do we specifically do going forward to get out of Iraq in a responsible manner?
They say that "possession is 9/10 of the law" and like it or not, we own Iraq right now because of Bush and Cheney abusing their authority:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0422-13.htm
Published on Thursday, April 22, 2004 by the San Diego Union-Tribune
Colin Powell, the Leader who Might Have Been
by James Goldsborough
"Powell admits he is a source for Bob Woodward's new book on the Iraq War, called "Plan of Attack." According to Woodward, Powell was kept out of the loop and only reluctantly went along with war plans. Powell refers to war planners close to Vice President Dick Cheney as the "Gestapo" and accuses Cheney of having war "fever." When President Bush decides on war, Powell asks if he understands the consequences. He warns Bush that "If you break it (Iraq), you own it."
We broke it and now we own it..."
The bottom line is that the next President will inherit and will have to be able to fix each and every foreign policy problem that Bush and Cheney will leave behind on 1/20/09!
Hillary's views on Iraq are much closer to Gen. Clark's than Obama's are and Hillary has stated that Gen. Clark "will have a role in her administration:"
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14600
ANALYSIS: Hillary is much closer to Gen. Clark's views on Iraq than Obama is!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on February 4, 2008 - 6:56am.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14269
Hillary said about Gen. Clark that "he will have a role in her administration"
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on December 31, 2007 - 5:07am.
This is why on the issues of proven foreign policy experience and how we will get out of Iraq in the most responsible manner, Hillary Clinton to me is the candidate who best represents real "Hope" and "Change" in this election!
Mitch Dworkin
http://www.securingamerica.com/
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/10756
StopIranWar.com: "War is not the answer"
Submitted by Wes Clark on February 21, 2007 - 11:40am.
http://www.securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7191
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program: An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight back against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda!
will be for the next President is a huge reason why I definitely think that Democrats should nominate Hillary Clinton!
Hillary's FOREIGN POLICY EXPERIENCE is far greater and is much more extensive than Barack Obama's extremely limited foreign policy experience!
This issue in my opinion has NOTHING to do with the "WASHINGTON EXPERIENCE" that Obama is always talking about and continually uses as a distraction to try and get away from his obvious lack of "foreign policy experience:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0802/11/acd.02.html
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
Extreme Challenges - the Next Four Years
Aired February 11, 2008 - 23:00 ET
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: "Good evening.
Nobody knows who our next president is going to be, but the challenges he or she will face are immense, perhaps unprecedented; the war in Afghanistan, the fight against terrorism, the war in Iraq.
More than 100,000 U.S. troops are still there, still fighting on the front lines. What options will the next president have?
Back home, there's the struggling economy to deal with. The housing market has collapsed, inflation is on the rise and there's fear we are already in a recession...
COOPER: Even the Democrats who were talking about pulling out -- there are some of them talking -- giving 60 days, 90 days, 180 days, whatever. But some of them recognize or say, "Look, we still have to figure out some level of commitment." We now have this huge embassy, what do we do with that? People need to guard the embassy. People need to be able to react to events."
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: If Democrats are elected they're going to face a serious dilemma in Iraq. It's going to be one of the toughest problems they face and one of the toughest presidencies I think we've ever faced.
COOPER: Because of what they have said?
GERGEN: Because of what they believe. What they believe, they believe we ought to start coming down. We ought to start significantly reducing the numbers and leave behind some smaller contingent force to deal if something erupts.
But here's the dilemma. You've promised that you're going to get out. Iraq has been on simmer. George Bush is going to give you something that looks like it's doing better.
You know, Colin Powell has long argued this is like putting a lid on a pot. The American presence is like putting a lid on a pot. And you can keep it on simmer for a long time. Once you start taking the lid off, the pot can boil over.
So if you're a Democrat, you come in there, you commit to coming out -- getting out. You start taking the lid off that pot, and if it starts overflowing, erupting, you suddenly become the president who lost the war. You've become the president who lost Iraq. And that can destroy your whole presidency. So how you do this is critical to the future of your entire presidency. It's not just about Iraq; it's about your political power, your political capacity to govern at home on any number of issues, which are in some ways, I think Fareed now would agree, in some ways are far more important than Iraq. But Iraq is the immediate issue..."
for the next President:
http://www.thechrismatthewsshow.com/html/transcript/index.php?selected=1&id=94
Weekend of January 13, 2008
THE CHRIS MATTHEWS SHOW
Mr. BOB WOODWARD (Assistant Managing Editor, The Washington Post): "You may know this, but the real fault line in American politics is still the Iraq war. It is the most important thing going on in the world, it is the most imp--it is going to be the most important thing going on in American politics. Disclosure, I'm writing a book about it--a fourth book on Bush and his wars. And if you think ahead in any version of events, the new president--he, she--is going to have to make some really hard, important choices about that war, our foreign policy, the Middle East, and that needs to be discussed more in the campaign."
Bill Schneider of CNN got it right in my opinion when he commented "Democrats in Texas and Ohio said Clinton was more qualified than Obama to be commander in chief" and "She delivers. He inspires:"
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/05/sitroom.01.html
THE SITUATION ROOM
Clinton Trounces Obama: Obama Still Leads in Delegates; Clinton: 'Dream Ticket' With Obama Possible; President Bush Endorses John McCain
Aired March 5, 2008 - 16:00 ET
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: "Democrats in Texas and Ohio said Clinton was more qualified than Obama to be commander in chief. And that may have boosted her support from one of the toughest constituencies of all, white men.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: Democratic voters in Texas and Ohio were more likely to say Clinton has a clear plan to solve the country's problems than Obama. But they were more likely to say Obama inspires them about the future of the country. She delivers. He inspires -- Wolf."
I want a President like Hillary who "delivers" because a President who can deliver will inspire me!
Nobel winner: Hillary Clinton's "silly" Irish peace claims
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 2:13am GMT 08/03/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/08/wuspols108.xml
I agree that Hillary is not at the same level of someone like Gen. Clark when it comes to foreign policy experience BUT she at least has a good record as this post documents and she brings some serious foreign policy experience to this campaign against John McCain!
We also know that Hillary will have the right kind of foreign policy people around her such as Gen. Clark and Madeleine Albright while Obama's former adviser Samantha Power says that Obama will campaign on one thing and then do another thing if he is elected to a foreign newspaper:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/07/sitroom.02.html
THE SITUATION ROOM
Obama Staff Member Makes Controversial Comments Then Resigns; McCain's New Web Ad; Gay Iranian Teen Seeks Asylum
Aired March 7, 2008 - 17:00 ET
"Senator Clinton said Obama did the right thing in distancing himself from Power, but Power is drawing fire from Clinton over remarks she made about Obama's position on Iraq. In a recent BBC interview, Power was asked about Obama's plan to get U.S. combat brigades out within 16 months of taking office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMANTHA POWER, FORMER OBAMA ADVISER: He will, of course, not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or as a U.S. senator. He will rely upon a plan, an operations plan, that he pulls in consultation with people who are on the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: Power also said Obama would try to get U.S. forces out as quickly as possible and that 16 months is the best case scenario.
But for Hillary Clinton, that raises the question of whether Obama is promising one thing on troop withdrawal and planning to do another.
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: While Senator Obama campaigns on his plan to end the war, his top advisers tell people abroad that he will not rely on his own plan should he become president..."
Gordon, please tell me what Obama brings to this campaign when we are specifically talking about his foreign policy experience outside of his speech in 2002 against the Iraq war and his own quote "Probably the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact that I spent four years living overseas when I was a child in Asia—Southeast Asia:"
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/20/clinton-hits-obama-on-foreign-relations-experience/
November 20, 2007
Clinton hits Obama on foreign relations experience
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/13948
Obama said strongest foreign relations experience was living overseas as a child
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on November 21, 2007 - 9:17am.
You can quote an article here and there about what Hillary may or may not have done in the area of her foreign policy experience but the facts show that she clearly has done some things. I cannot see anything at all of significance that Obama has done in the specific area of foreign policy experience!
All that Obama does is talk against "Washington experience" and he brings up Hillary's 2002 Iraq War Resolution vote when this issue comes up. That will NOT get us out of Iraq in a responsible manner and that does NOT tell us what Obama's specific foreign policy qualifications are!
Gee, Senator Clinton, we couldn't help noticing that your record of experience where it really counts pales in comparison to Wes Clark's. So why do you think your the better person for the job?
best man for the job? Assuming she agreed that he is, do you really think things couldn't be arranged to put him in her place? It's quite easy to imagine how it could be done if the will was there.
I have pulled all three of General Clark's books and looked in the indices for the name "Clinton, Hillary" expecting to see some discussion of Hillary in the Bosnia section, or Hillary in the Kosovo section. Nothing.
In her book, Madeline Albright refers to phone calls with President Clinton around 3 AM, but I found nothing about Hillary.
In Richard Holbrook's "To End a War," lots of discussion of Bosnia and Kosovo. No Hillary, although recently, Ambassador Holbrook made this curious statement: " She wasn't the one making the final decisions on U.S. Policy, but no one in the world got a better idea of the countervailing pressures. The most important decision a president can make is to send troops into harm's way. She knows what that entails."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120013
Dana Priest's "The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military," a 429 page book that discusses Kosovo, but makes no mention of Hillary Clinton's claim, "I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo."
The index in Priest's book had one reference to Hillary Clinton that led me to the following discussion of a White House dinner that included General Wesley Clark:
"As dinner approached, the guests squeezed in around a thirty-foot-long crescent-shaped table that Hillary Clinton had commissioned in Chile. It was only the second time she had asked workers to haul it out so that everyone could sit within her husband's gaze and no one would feel left out. Waiters in white gloves slid Maine lobster, beluga caviar, and veal noisettes onto their plates as the U.S. Marine Band Strolling Strings breezed by. Bouquets of white flowers adorned the table. It looked like a wedding and felt like a family reunion."
There may be other references that indicate Mrs. Clinton was helpful in Bosnia or Kosovo, but the above referred to books by writers who played integral roles do not do so.
Whether or not Hillary played a pivotal role, negotiated agreements, or made important decisions is really beside the point. The point is that she was there at the point of the issues, had met the players, and at a minimum played an advisory or diplomatic role. That's a hell of a lot more than can be said of her presidential opponent. Unless, I must add, you think that Wes Clark and others have been lying about what she did.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Make America All It Can Be!
The internet is loaded with all sorts of artifact of her tenure as first lady.
Such as this: http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/14/kosovo.refugees/
"
SKOPJE, Macedonia (CNN) -- The wife of U.S. President Bill Clinton toured the refugee camps of Macedonia on Friday, listening to uprooted Kosovars' tales of a forced exodus from the Serbian province where they once lived.
Hillary Rodham Clinton called the refugees' stories "extremely disturbing," saying they brought up images that hadn't been seen in Europe since World War II.
"You feel almost like you're intruding, but they want to tell you what it felt like when they lost their children," Mrs. Clinton said.
NATO accuses the Yugoslav army and Serb special police of conducting a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against Kosovo's Albanian population.
Mrs. Clinton said the stories echoed images of the Nazi era, as depicted by films like "Schindler's List" or "Sophie's Choice."
"Think about what that means -- to be driving people from their homes, separating them from their families, loading them on trains," she said.
But she said NATO's eight-week-old air war against Yugoslavia was meant "to enable these people to have a life and end this century on a note of commitment to human rights in Europe."
Mrs. Clinton toured the refugee camps at Stenkovec, where about 20,000 ethnic Albanians have huddled since being pushed out of Kosovo. Friday, for the first time in more than a week, Macedonian officials allowed refugees to cross the border without papers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.
Macedonia had closed its borders last week, hoping to prompt third countries to take in more refugees. The UNHCR said it evacuated fewer than 2,000 people from the region on Thursday, but it was trying to find a way to speed up the departures.
The UNHCR reported a sharp reduction in the number of refugees leaving Kosovo, with only one person crossing at the Morina, Albania, border post. But nearly 750,000 remained in the region, including 431,000 in Albania; 233,000 in Macedonia; and 64,000 in Montenegro. "
For a First Lady to take this type of role was unprecidented. Trips like these brought scruitiny and coverage on issue like this refugee situation that thet would have otherwise not recieved.
Tho try and diminish the role she played with her trips around the world doesn't ring true. Bill and Hillary are to thsi day to pf th emore popular political figures on the planet.
There is no way that I am going to be convinced That Barack Obama has the expereince, the contacts, both domestic and foreign, and the depth of knowledge that Hillary Clinton has.
If this article is to be believed he has been a virtual loaner in the senate. He has spent his tenure in a very calculating manner switching to campaigning for President for the second he wa sworn in. He has made no move that would put his ambition of being President beneath doing the work of the people.
There is no way I will vote for this guy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23540579/
Difficult place to fit in
Mr. Obama had visited Washington only a handful of times before taking office, and he was fresh enough to its ways that he bubbled over about his first trip on Air Force One in June 2005. He fretted about getting lost on his first trip to the White House, for a reception the day he was sworn in, and later marveled that there were flat-screen televisions in the Lincoln Bedroom.
But he remained ambivalent about the city and its institutions. Unlike many senators with young children, he did not move his family to the capital. He rarely spent more than three nights in Washington — aides would reserve tickets on several flights to make sure he got home to Chicago after the week’s final Senate vote.
Mr. Obama found the Hill a difficult place to fit in, and it was not always clear that he wanted to. He was 43 when he arrived, younger than most of his colleagues — whose average age was 60 — and even many senior staff members. Unlike senators who come up through the House, he did not have an existing network of friends, and while some members of Congress bunk with others, he lived by himself in one of the nondescript new boxes along Massachusetts Avenue. On the nights he was in town, he typically went alone to a Chinatown athletic club — not the Senate gym — or attended events on the Hill.
" An issue with immigration reform He joined a bipartisan group, which included Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and Mr. Kennedy, that agreed to stick to a final compromise bill even though it was sure to face challenges from interest groups on both sides. Yet when the measure reached the floor, Mr. Obama distanced himself from the compromise, advocating changes sought by labor groups. The bill collapsed. To some in the bipartisan coalition, Mr. Obama’s move showed an unwillingness to take a tough stand. “He folded like a cheap suit,” said Senator Lindsey Graham , Republican of South Carolina and a close ally of Mr. McCain. “What it showed me is you are not an agent of change. Because to really change things in this place you have to get beat up now and then.” "
To others, though, the mismatch between Mr. Obama’s outside profile and his inside accomplishments wore thin. While some senators spent hours in closed-door meetings over immigration reform in early 2007, he dropped in only occasionally, prompting complaints that he was something of a dilettante.
... "naïve." Maybe he's not naïve now, but he started out that way apparently.
We don't really want a naïve president, do we? Whatever Hillary is, she's anything but naïve.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Make America All It Can Be!
IF he is the nominee when he goes up against John McCain and the GOP attack machine in the general election:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/13948
Obama said strongest foreign relations experience was living overseas as a child
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on November 21, 2007 - 9:17am.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14686
OBAMA & IRAQ PART 1: How Obama will be vulnerable on Iraq if nominated!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on February 11, 2008 - 10:14am.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14687
OBAMA & IRAQ PART 2: What The RNC is already saying about Obama & Iraq now!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on February 11, 2008 - 10:21am.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14688
OBAMA & IRAQ PART 3: One difference in Obama's & Hillary's Iraq voting records!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on February 11, 2008 - 10:30am.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14640
TRANSCRIPT: Obama tried to have it both ways on setting a timetable for Iraq!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on February 6, 2008 - 11:50pm.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14600
ANALYSIS: Hillary is much closer to Gen. Clark's views on Iraq than Obama is!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on February 4, 2008 - 6:56am.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14445
Dan Abrams asked about terrorism "did Barack Obama fall into a Right wing trap?"
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on January 18, 2008 - 6:36am.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/14368
Obama national campaign co-chair Paul Hodes on Iraq: "I don‘t think it is a war"
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on January 9, 2008 - 5:39am.
Obama has followed Hillary around with his Iraq foreign policy where at first he was "very noncommittal" about "a cap in the troops" and then "within minutes, within minutes of Hillary Clinton coming out with her proposal. We got a press release from Barack Obama. He too supports capping the number of troops in Iraq:"
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/21/tww.01.html
THIS WEEK AT WAR
Week's War Activities Recounted
Aired January 21, 2007 - 13:00 ET
ROBERTS: "Dana, some of these Democrats are being very careful about making sure that they're not boxing themselves in. When you look at Hillary Clinton's proposal as I talked about with her, she puts a cap on the troops, but doesn't touch that third rail of funding for them. Are they being very careful about what they say?
BASH: They're being very careful on the money issue, because that is just a political danger zone, as you said, the third rail of Iraq politics, but there is such intense jockeying. You know, we always knew this was going to be the place to watch because there's so many Democrats in the Senate, Republicans, too, but especially Democrats, running for president and just this week, I mean, what you saw, especially between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. We knew Hillary Clinton was going to come out with her legislation in the morning. The same day she did, I saw Barack Obama in the hallway and I said, are you going to be for a cap in the troops? Are you going to have your own bill and he was very noncommittal, saying well, I don't know. We have to wait and see, within minutes, within minutes of Hillary Clinton coming out with her proposal. We got a press release from Barack Obama. He too supports capping the number of troops in Iraq. So, they are so watching each other and really circling each other. And we are so far away from when this really gets intense. It's going to be quite a place to watch up here with people."