Has Hillary Let Obama Back Into The Race?

I strongly differ with Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was the only Democratic presidential candidate to support this reckless amendment. We do need to tighten sanctions on the Iranian regime, particularly on Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which sponsors terrorism far beyond Iran's borders. But this must be done separately from any unnecessary saber-rattling about checking Iranian influence with our "military presence in Iraq." Above all, it must be done through tough and direct diplomacy with Iran, which I have supported, and which Sen. Clinton has called "naive and irresponsible."

Sen. Clinton says she was merely voting for more diplomacy, not war with Iran. If this has a familiar ring, it should. Five years after the original vote for war in Iraq, Sen. Clinton has argued that her vote was not for war -- it was for diplomacy, or inspections. But all of us knew what the Senate was debating in 2002. John Edwards has renounced his own vote for the war, and he should be applauded for his candor. After all, we didn't need to authorize a war in order to have United Nations weapons inspections. No one thought Congress was debating diplomacy. No newspaper headlines ran on Oct. 12, 2002, reading, "Congress authorizes diplomacy." This was a vote to authorize war, and without that vote, there would have been no war.

It's unfortunate that Sen. Obama is abandoning the politics of hope and embracing the same old attack politics as his support stagnates. Sen. Obama is well aware that Sen. Clinton was one of the first to say George Bush must get explicit congressional authority before attacking Iran and is the sole co-sponsor of legislation forbidding the president from expending any money on military action there without Congressional approval. Sen. Obama's attacks won't bring change, but Sen. Clinton's strength and experience will.

Whatever happened to the politics of "let's chat" and "let's have a conversation?" Obviously, they find it irritating to answer tough questions on important issues like Iran but voters deserve to know that Obama simply disagreed with Clinton's support for the war in Iraq in 2002 and disagrees with her on Iran, right now.