My take on Hillary Clinton's motives in breaking with Obama on foreign policy

[Unvanguard]

27. I don't think it will matter all that much in a primary, for two reasons

First, Clinton has an overwhelming political advantage as it is, and no competitors who are especially strong. (Biden? O'Malley? Really?)

Second, the Iraq War was special in 2008 because it was a major, dominant political issue; both most of the public and an overwhelming majority of Democrats had decided it was a mistake, and it was one of the most salient policy debates of the Bush Administration. In general, voters do not pay that much attention to foreign policy, and it would be a mistake to think that even Democratic primary voters have strong dovish feelings on the list of foreign policy issues you mention.

I don't know what Clinton's actual views are. It's possible--perhaps likely--that she is genuinely more hawkish than Obama. But it could also be (instead or in addition to her being more hawkish) that she sees a general perception that Obama's foreign policy hasn't been especially successful, and so she wants to rhetorically distance herself from it to blunt attacks on it in the general election.