I started criticizing the war in Iraq before he did.
-- Hillary Clinton, 4/5/08
Yes, that's a pretty crazy thing to say, but this being Clinton, there's some parsing involved. In her mind, anything that happened before January, 2005 doesn't count, because she and Barack Obama weren't both in the Senate.
Okay -- but as Jake Tapper documented, Clinton's story was flat-out false.
I did a bit of digging, found the video of Barack Obama on January 18, 2005 at Condoleeza Rice's confirmation hearing. This is the Barack Obama we love -- intellectual and sincere, respectful but uncompromising. And criticizing the Iraq war as a U.S. Senator -- before Hillary Clinton.
Here's Clinton on Saturday (extended version here):
As Tapper explained, the only evidence Clinton's folks could come up with to defend her claim was a written statement from January 26, 2005 -- eight days after Obama questioned Rice. Note that this was a statement for the record -- she didn't give it herself, and may never have seen it.
Meanwhile, a few weeks later, in February 2005, she was touring Iraq with BFF John McCain.
Clinton says insurgency is failing
BAGHDAD (AP) — As 55 people died in Iraq on Saturday, the holiest day on the Shiite Muslim religious calendar, Sen. Hillary Clinton said that much of Iraq was "functioning quite well" and that the rash of suicide attacks was a sign that the insurgency was failing.
Clinton, a New York Democrat, said insurgents intent on destabilizing the country had failed to disrupt Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 elections.
"The concerted effort to disrupt the elections was an abject failure. Not one polling place was shut down or overrun," Clinton told reporters inside the U.S.-protected Green Zone, a sprawling complex of sandbagged buildings surrounded by blast walls and tanks. The zone is home to the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy.
When they returned from Iraq, Clinton and McCain made a joint appearance on Meet the Press. Sorry, no video, but I've posted the full transcript of Iraq-related questions put to Clinton here. But in that interview, she was hardly critical of the war:
I think the important thing is to recognize that the Iraqi security forces are now more engaged, and have to be, and the new Iraqi government, as it takes hold, will assume greater and greater responsibility for dealing with the insurgency. So we are watching this and trying to gather as much information as possible, but it's really now going to be largely up to the Iraqi people and their new government to determine how effective this insurgency is in the future.
(snip)
It is not in America's interests for the Iraqi government, the experiment in freedom and democracy, to fail. So I hope that Americans understand that and that we will have as united a front as is possible in our country at this time to keep our troops safe, make sure they have everything they need and try to support this new Iraqi government.
Oh, how I wish that I had video. Anyone have any way of getting it? February 20, 2005 was the date.
Speaking of videos I'm probably going to be doing a new video about this most recent tale. In the meantime, here's a video I made a while back about Barack Obama's record on Iraq:
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Olbermann, tonight:
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Also posted on my blog.