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anti-war/anti-Hillary protester Samantha Miller, photographed in Beverly Hills, April 21, 2006
Lieberman defeat in Connecticut elevates Hillary Clinton to the top of the pro-war Democrat list
With the Tuesday, August 8, 2006, defeat of pro-war U.S. Senator from Connecticut Joe Lieberman, the position as top Democratic supporter of President Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq has now fallen to U.S. Senator from New York, and possible 2008 presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Senator Clinton now finds herself, if you'll pardon the expression, between Iraq and a hard place.
As discussed earlier today on NBC's
Chris Matthews Show, if she wants to run for president, she will simultaneously need to establish her credibility as strong on national security, while taking into account the overwhelming opposition to the war in Iraq among a large majority of Democrats, and, indeed, among a majority of U.S. voters.
Her elevation to the top spot on the list of Democratic supporters of this increasingly unpopular war has not escaped comment even outside of the U.S. An article entitled
"Bye-bye, Joe: now Hillary’s the target," by
Sunday Times (U.K.) Washington correspondent Sarah Baxter, appearing in tomorrow's online edition of that publication, points out that:
"THE defeat of Joe Lieberman, the most hawkish senator in the Democratic party, by an anti-war political novice in a primary election in Connecticut last week was a spectacular coup for the “netroots”: the grassroots, anti-establishment, anti-war left that had mobilised opposition on the internet to the political grandee.
"The same activists are now seeking to bend Senator Hillary Clinton to their anti-war side or face defeat in the Democratic presidential primaries. Her supporters are concerned that the 'jihadist' left, galvanised by the victory of East Coast millionaire Ned Lamont, are on the rise in the Democratic party, starkly affecting its national electoral prospects.
"Mike McCurry, White House press secretary during Bill Clinton’s presidency, said: 'The very idea of centrism is under attack now in the party. We have our own loony left too.'”