Liberal anger was palatable. And revenge is oh so sweet – if not short lived and short sighted.
Hillary Clinton has said that “if she knew then what she knew now she wouldn't have voted for the Iraq War Resolution”. Liberal translation -- She obviously was for the war from the get go. Her judgment is suspect says Obama. The fact that she hasn't stood up and said she was wrong and apologized damns her in the eyes of the liberal wing of the party.
Clinton has tried to explain to the liberals that in times of crisis Presidents must be given power to make threats and, as a last resort, make those threats reality. At the time of the Iraq War Vote, Congress and America didn't know that George Bush and Dick Cheney had begun drawing up Iraq War strategy within in days of taking office. We didn't know then that the Bush Administration was so intent on going to war that they'd manipulate intelligence and sell America and the world, for that matter, a pile of horse manure. At that time we didn't know that George Junior would actually go it alone and start a unilateral war of choice. Surely. Surely! He wasn't that stupid.
Surprise.
Does anybody honestly believe that if Hillary Clinton had been in the Whitehouse instead of George W. Bush that she would have taken this country to war? Is she really personally responsible for George W. Bush's Iraq War?
Liberal Democrats say yes. And thus they denounce her at every opportunity. And thus they support Barack Obama and trash Hillary Clinton.
Liberal Democrats are right about one thing -- Obama probably wouldn't have voted for the war. After all he is the most liberal Senator in the Senate. He didn't beat out Bernie Sanders; the Senate's first and only socialist, for that mantel by being moderate.
Would he have been right though in voting against the war if Bush hadn't been a liar, full of hubris, and dumber than a rock?
A vote against the war could have been just as disastrous as the Iraq War has turned out to be had the claims of mushroom clouds been true.
They weren't true and now liberals, with 20-20 hindsight, are extracting their revenge on the one person they can reach – Hillary Clinton.
In so doing the pendulum is swinging wildly to the left – from one extreme to another.
The problem is that fixing the mess that George Bush and the Republicans have created by their incompetence and their adherence to right wing ideological dogma won't come from jerking the wheel to the left as hard as possible.
The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is focused on doing just that. They are in no mood to compromise. It's their way or the highway. And … in the case of selecting the Democratic Party Presidential nominate, they apparently are unable to remember one of the biggest history lessons in the annuals of the Democratic Party – “McGovernasque” candidates can't win the general.
And so … the greatest opportunity in recent political history is being flushed down the toilet. It is being sacrificed on the altar of liberal revenge.
There is still a chance to grab the wheel. There are 10 more primaries left for moderates to drag the Democratic Party back towards the center before it self-destructs. The real question though is can liberals be stopped from extracting their pound and a half of flesh for the good of the Party?
A moderate will win in the fall. The only question is whether it will be Hillary Clinton or John McCain. If Liberal Democrats insist on nominating Obama then the answer is a no-brainer.
