Just a coincidence I'm sure. Former Governor Brian Schweitzer is in Iowa talking about Hillary Clinton's Iraq war vote:
In a speech to Iowa Democrats in the Des Moines suburb of Altoona, and in remarks to reporters, Schweitzer repeatedly chided Senate Democrats who voted in 2002 to green light military action in Iraq.
snip
“Anybody who runs in this cycle, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, if they were the United States Senate and they voted with George Bush to go to Iraq when I would say about 98 percent of America knows that it was a folly, that it was a waste of treasure and blood, and if they voted to go to Iraq there will be questions for them on the left and from the right,” he told CNN.
Later, in his remarks to a holiday party organized by the liberal group Progress Iowa, Schweitzer asked the roughly 70 audience members to keep the Iraq war vote in mind as they begin to think about potential candidates passing through the state.
“When George Bush got a bunch of Dems to vote for that war, I was just shaking my head in Montana,” he said, noting that he opposed the war (though he didn’t have to vote on it). “I’m asking you to pick the leaders who aren’t going to make those mistakes.”
cnn.com
I'm not sold on Schweitzer as a progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton because of (1) his support for coal; (2) his love for other forms of carbon; (3) his gun fetishism; and (4) I don't know enough about the rest of his positions.
I always thought that he would make a good senator from a reddish state, but I am not convinced that he is as left as Merkley, Sanders, Warren or Sherrod Brown. My overall view, based on incomplete data, is that he is somewhere close to Clinton overall, with that being center to center-left. I also wonder if a redneck from Montana will get African American or Latino votes. It used to be that Democrats always chased after "Bubba" votes, hoping that southern and rural middle and working class whites would return. I think that is the wrong way. I see the future as a rainbow and based on the Obama coalition. Hillary, for all her centrism, may fit the coalition better than Schweitzer.
It also is not 2008 and Schweitzer is not Barack Obama. Maybe the Iraq vote should haunt Hillary Clinton in a more just world, but I'm not convinced it will. It's ancient history to many. We've left Iraq. My gut (no data) tells me that many people will feel they already punished her in 2008 and don't need to again for that vote. Of course, I could be wrong.
In sum, as with Hillary Clinton, I'll keep an open mind about Schweitzer. Plenty of time to go. Maybe there will be a real leftist alternative, or maybe not.
But between this and his remarks earlier this week, Schweitzer is trying to stake out a position on the left and come at Clinton.
In an interview with the Weekly Standard published in the Dec. 23 issue, Schweitzer speculated Clinton might become a "hard right" politician.
"The question that we have is, will it be the Hillary that leads the progressives? Or is it the Hillary that says, 'I'm already going to win the Democratic nomination, and so I can shift hard right on Day 1,'" Schweitzer said. "We can't afford any more hard right. We had eight years of George Bush. Now we've had five years of Obama, [who], I would argue, in many cases has been a corporatist."
Gov. Schweitzer Auditions to be Progressive Challenger to Hillary (quoting TPM)
I think Schweitzer has a case of Potomac fever.
Update I: Gaming this out, one has to look at the coalition that makes the Democratic Party. The biggest group is women. A Schweitzer nomination over Hillary Clinton would be the second time she was passed over for a man. There well could be backlash and a loss of votes and/or enthusiasm. (which is another reason Warren has appeal, but I take her at her word that she is not running). And for every white working class male vote that Schweitzer might bring, Hillary Clinton can bring a white working class women voter.
I don't see this as Schweitzer's time for a number of reasons, but it does not hurt that he is bringing up issues.