As Harry Shearer likes to say on LeShow - "from the Buried Lede department..."
I know the front page diarists here are prolific writers, and everyone likes a good essay, and it's fun to try to find some point or theory that nobody else has mentioned...but sometimes the truth is pretty darn simple.
HRC lost because she made a political calculation to vote for Iraqi war, instead of doing her constitutional duty as a US Senator. It backfired. I can't think of a more important lesson for other politicians to learn, but here at Kos it seems to be getting buried under an avalanche of campaign minutia.
The founding fathers understood the dangers of pure Democracy, just as they understood the dangers of executive power. That's why they created checks and balances, and that's why they created US Senators. Those to whom we citizens have granted the priviledge of public office owe it to us to perform their constitutional duty.
In 2002 many US Senators (and Representatives) failed to uphold their duty with spectacular negligence. Many did not even bother to read the official National Intelligence Estimate before voting to Authorize the Use of Millitary Force. Finally some are paying a personal price for their negligence. Hillary Clinton has simply become the prime example, since she had the most to lose.
I ask you, for the good of our country, what is the most important thing we should emphasize when discussing Clinton's failed 2008 primary campaign?
Should we tell future leaders not to hire Mark Penn or to reign in their politician spouses?
Or should we remind them that they will be held accountable on election day if they betray their constitutional duty by rubber stamping an immoral war built on lies?