Hillary turns up the heat on Obama.

"The argument that somehow Sen. Obama has shown unique judgment in the case of Iraq is belied by the record in which he showed identical support for Iraq War funding as Sen. Clinton," Jamie Rubin, a Clinton-era State Department official now supporting Hillary Clinton, told reporters in a hastily-called conference call. Rubin said Obama's earlier anti-war statements while he was a state Senator in Illinois were not supported by the votes he took once he arrived in Washington." There is nothing unique or special or wise about Sen. Obama's position on the Iraq War," Rubin said.

Rubin's statements came just a few hours after Sen. Clinton unleashed her latest political offensive during an hour-long interview on NBC's "Meet The Press." Clinton used the network platform to accuse Obama of waffling in his war opposition, noting that the Illinois Democrat had given an anti-war speech in 2002 but voted for funding resolutions while in office. "That is inconsistent with what he is now running his campaign on," she said. "The story of his campaign is premised on that speech."

I watched part of that "Meet the Press" program today. Hillary was very aggressively trying to make the point that Obama's voting record is no better then hers when it comes to supporting the President's war in Iraq.

She is not completely inaccurate as you can see by comparing her voting record, to Obama's.

But of course we all know that almost EVERY senator has been afraid to vote in a way that may be perceived as not supporting the troops (Which is exactly the way the administration has defined the debate). So the voting record does not truly reflect either Obama's or Hillary's true feelings about the war. But I think it is worth noting that Hillary voted for the October "Use of Military Force Against Iraq" legislation which allowed us to invade Iraq and the September 2007's "Expressing the Sense of Congress Regarding Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps" amendment which allowed the administration to start referring to the Islamic National Guard as terrorists. This second legislation opens the door to attacking Iran because they are now considered to be harboring "terrorists", which are in truth their very own military.

I think that those two votes really demonstrate both Hillary's poor judgement, and her desire to look tough for future Republican voters. She has been voting for what is in her own personal best interests and not what is in the best interests of this country.

Now in contrast Obama gave a famous 2002 speech in which he said the following:

Now let me be clear: I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power.... The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.


But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors...and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.


I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars. So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president.

Now we know that every word that he spoke that day has come to pass. We HAVE inflamed the Middle East. We HAVE strengthened the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. We ARE stuck in a DUMB war.

Obama foresaw all of this.

Now his voting record may not be perfect. But which senator's is? And he may have been pressured to vote for things that he wished he could vote against. But when the President, who had a giant positive poll rating, tried to bully the Senate into voting to allow him to plunge this country into an illegal and unnecessary war, Barack Obama who was just a state Senator at the time, risked his political future by speaking out against it.

That act of bravery could have meant that his political career would end in the Illinos State Senate, but he did not care. He spoke the truth at a time when nobody wanted to hear the truth. And he did it because it was the right thing to do. Not the POLITICAL thing to do, the RIGHT thing to do.

And that my friends is who I want to lead my country. How about you?