Obama Quote That's Upsetting Bill Clinton Unearthed
March 16, 2007 -- 4:18 PM EST // //
Okay, I think I've unearthed the Barack Obama quote that Bill Clinton is criticizing The New York Times for not giving more attention to. It's from July of 2004.
As reported below, Clinton sharply criticized The Times at a private fundraiser the other day. His gripe was that the paper spends too much time dwelling on Hillary's refusal to say her war vote was a "mistake," and not enough time on certain past Barack Obama quotations about the war. The former President didn't specify exactly which quote he was referring to, but I'm certain that I've found it. It actually ran in a Times piece about Obama from July 26, 2004 (via Nexis):
In a recent interview, he declined to criticize Senators Kerry and Edwards for voting to authorize the war, although he said he would not have done the same based on the information he had at the time.''But, I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports,'' Mr. Obama said. ''What would I have done? I don't know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made.''
But Mr. Obama said he did fault Democratic leaders for failing to ask enough tough questions of the Bush administration to force it to prove its case for war. ''What I don't think was appropriate was the degree to which Congress gave the president a pass on this,'' he said.
Judging by what my witness told me of the former President's remarks, Clinton's thinking is this: If Obama is going to make an issue during the current Presidential campaign out of the fact that he didn't vote for the war, then more attention should be paid to the fact that Obama -- by his own admission -- didn't have to grapple with the intel that Senators such as Hillary had to deal with, and can't be certain what he would have done if he had. Clinton presumably thinks that this quote should be a part of the current dialogue -- in The Times and elsewhere -- if Obama's going to tout his early opposition to the war.
Anyway, I'm not endorsing this position. I'm merely passing along the quote for your edification and enjoyment -- and debate. Have at it.
Update: The fact that the quote appeared in the same paper Clinton's faulting for not featuring it prominently doesn't change his argument. He'd presumably like to see the quote be discussed far more often in the present by the paper. He presumably thinks it should be part of the current dialogue in the same way Hillary's refusal to term her war vote a mistake is.
To visit the homepage of this blog, where you can see many more posts, click here.