DU on Clinton: Hard-hitting criticism or smears?

[Jim Lane]

53. This is astounding. What would you consider to be a substantive criticism?

Yes, she went along with it. The Bush administration was blatantly lying and stirring up a jingoistic fervor. Plenty of people of intelligence and principle saw through the deception and voted No. It was a test of intelligence and/or character, and she failed it. The result (not the result of her vote, because it would have passed with or without her, but the result of the passage of the bill) was an unmitigated disaster.

You write: "You appear to be tying to make some substance (weight) out of" that vote. Absolutely I am. It's part of looking at her record. Clinton's partisans aren't shy about promoting her candidacy based, in part, on pointing to decisions she's made that they condone. She's tried to improve our health care system, she's fought for women's rights, etc., etc. Those are perfectly legitimate arguments -- substantive arguments, in your terminology. We assess candidates based in large part on their records, on the decisions they've made. We leave it to the low-information voters to support the candidate with the best teeth or whatever.

If it's substantive to point favorably to some of her past decisions, then it's also substantive to point unfavorably to others.

People will of course differ in the weight to be given to competing considerations. For me, the IWR is a big one. I'll add that she compounded her mistake by taking so long to admit to it.

I don't go so far as to say that I would never vote for a candidate who supported the IWR. I voted for Kerry in the general election in 2004. I would have voted for Clinton if she had been our nominee in the general election in 2008. As you say, people make mistakes, and I've never yet had the opportunity of voting for a perfect candidate for any office.

But that's a far cry from saying that it's not even a "substantive" argument to fault Clinton for getting horribly wrong on one of the most important decisions she had to make as a Senator. That so many other people got it wrong, also, doesn't somehow make it OK.