In case you missed it, Glenn Greenwald just wrote a brilliant article for Salon that outlined one of the main reasons she should not be our nominee against John McCain this fall. The premise is that Clinton's entire strategy against will not involve challenging McCain on the Iraq War and the role of our military in general. More below.
Barrack Obama repeatedly makes the obvious point that by not opposing the war from the start, she will have trouble differentiating herself from McCain on the war in Iraq. In fact, Clinton's whole strategy appears to be something like "McCain's tough on foreign policy; I'm tough on foreign policy too; so I'll win the election on the crappy economy." The Clinton strategy of sole focus on "It's the economy, stupid!" will surrender a major advantage for the democrats this fall and put the election of a democratic president at risk.
The fact is, the democratic nominee is going to have to take it to the republican on two fronts. The economy will definitely be one of them, and it will be a winning one for democrats, given the state of our economy under republican rule and McCain's economic inexperience. But if democrats are perceived as strong on the economy but the less trustworthy party on national defense, as may happen with Clinton not challenging McCain here, voters may eventually choose defense over dollars.
Greenwald focused on a Terry McCauliffe interview on MSNBC this week where, when asked by Chris Matthews if McCain was too much of a hawk, McCauliffe completely dodged the question and talked about how weak McCain was on the economy. THIS STRATEGY WILL FAIL IN THE FALL.
We need our nominee to be on the offensive, both on the economy and the war. We need our nominee to say that John McCain was wrong on the war, and that victory in Iraq is dependent on the Iraqi people, not the indefinite presence of our troops. Hillary Clinton will not be taking this approach.
Our nominee needs to stake out clear, strong, smart foreign policies that give voters a choice. Saying "I'm as tough as John McCain" or avoiding the issue are losing approaches. You will not beat John McCain on toughness--It's just about all he has going for him. You need to beat John McCain by talking, like Obama is, about how Iraq diverted us from Al Qaeda. About how Iraq CAUSED much of the economic mess back home. About how the war in Iraq was based on lies. By standing for rebuilding alliances and relationships that got damaged under the Bush administration, alliances and relationships that will help us contain terrorism. By defining strength as something other than the indiscriminate use of force. In her quest to 'outtough' McCain or just focus on the economy, Hillary Clinton will not be drawing these distinctions powerfully.
In short, foreign policy is one of the biggest reasons I support Barrack Obama over Hillary Clinton. Clinton supports will decry his inexperience in this area. Obama has something better than experience: common sense, and he won't be afraid to use it.