Democrats Position on issues, 2008

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Hillary Clinton warned Democrats not to ``oversell'' plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, setting a cautious tone on the war that was echoed by the party's two other leading presidential candidates.

Clinton and her main competitors for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards, agreed in a debate this morning that pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq can't be accomplished in just a few months and that any withdrawal must be balanced by security concerns.

`It is so important that we not oversell this,'' Clinton said at the ABC News-sponsored forum in Des Moines, Iowa. Edwards concurred, saying it ``would be hard'' to move troops out within six months, as suggested by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, while Obama said U.S. options are limited.

George Bush drove the bus into the ditch and there are only so many ways you can pull that bus out of the ditch,'' the Illinois Democrat said.

The debate was the first among the Democrats running for president held in the state that traditionally kicks off the official nomination contests with its party caucuses in January.

The candidates continued a discussion about whether Obama has enough experience to be president, and Clinton, of New York, was questioned about whether polls showing more than 40 percent of the public views her unfavorably suggest she is too polarizing a figure to lead the party to victory in 2008.

In a previous debate, Obama said he would be willing to meet unconditionally with hostile foreign leaders during his first year in office.

Debate on Experience

In today's forum, Clinton said no president ``should give away the bargaining chip of a personal meeting with any leader,'' and Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware said he stood by an earlier statement that Obama isn't ready for the job.

``To prepare for this debate I rode in the bumper cars at the state fair,'' Obama, 46, said, drawing laughter from the audience. Critics aren't arguing with ``the substance of my positions,'' the first-term senator said. ``I think that there's been some political maneuvering taking place over the last couple of weeks.''

Clinton, 59, took her turn on defense when the candidates were asked whether Democrats should be worried that nominating the former first lady will hurt the party.

Lobbyist Donations

The nation needs someone who ``can break out of the political patterns that we've been in over the last 20 years,'' Obama said. Edwards, 54, a former senator from North Carolina who is trailing Clinton and Obama in national polls and in raising money, suggested her ties to lobbyists will prevent her from being able to change Washington.

``These people will never give away power voluntarily,'' he said, renewing his call for Clinton to foreswear lobbyist contributions. ``We have to take their power away from them.''

Clinton said her critics are making an ``artificial distinction,'' because while Edwards and Obama don't take money directly from lobbyists they accept donations from law firms that hire lobbyists. ``It's the people who employ the lobbyists who are behind all the money in American politics,'' she said.

She said comments made last week by Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's political adviser, that Clinton enters the primary season with higher negative poll ratings than any previous frontrunner show she is the best candidate to beat the Republicans next year.

Nuclear Weapons

Clinton also defended comments she made in a Bloomberg News interview in 2006 that she would rule out using nuclear weapons against Iran. She criticized Obama for a recent comment that he wouldn't use nuclear weapons against terrorists.

``This was a brush back against this administration which has been reckless and provocative,'' she said of her earlier statement, whereas Obama's remark was on ``hypotheticals'' that shouldn't be addressed by a presidential candidate.

On the war, Richardson was alone in saying U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq in six to eight months, leaving no residual forces behind to protect civilian personnel.

Biden led the other Democrats in disagreeing. ``It's time to start to level with the American people,'' Biden said. ``If we leave Iraq and we leave it in chaos, there'll be regional war. The regional war will engulf us for a generation.''

Clinton said Biden is ``absolutely right,'' cautioning that ``this is going to be very dangerous and very difficult'' and ``a lot of people don't like to hear that.''

Edwards said a timetable of nine or 10 months is more reasonable. Obama said Biden is right and that ``this is not going to be a simple operation.''

When the eight candidates were asked whether there was a major issue where they didn't tell the whole truth, Clinton and Edwards cited their votes to authorize Bush to use military force in Iraq.

Clinton said while she thought at the time that her vote was an ``appropriate approach.'' Looking back on it ``I wouldn't have voted that way again,'' she said. ``Obviously for me that is a great regret.''

Edwards said that he had a ``huge internal conflict'' about the war authorization that he didn't express at the time.

My words follow, anyone who knows politics knows you need to win to advance your own agenda. If you know politics then you would know there are many times you vote only to advance your own agenda. If Democrats would have voted no on troop funds Republicans would have used that vote to make Democrats look bad in 2008, the Republicans would have went ahead anyway since they had the majority then. The troops were already in harms way when the vote was taken. This makes the NO vote by Democrats a "NO WIN" vote. Republicans know this to be true, they would have beat the Democrats to death with it in 30 seconds adds on TV and said the Democrats voted no on funding the troops and the Democrats are weak on fighting terror.