The Democratic side of 2016's run for the presidency has a new official entree—I mean, entrant. Say hello (again) to former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican turned Democrat, and whatever else you might think of him he at least is promising to add a bit of
what the hell were you all thinking to the would-be presidential landscape.
He has said he would focus a presidential campaign on growing the middle class by raising the minimum wage and supporting social programs such as Head Start. He has also indicated he will target primary frontrunner Hillary Clinton on her vote to authorize the Iraq War when they both served in the Senate. The vote, which hurt Clinton in her 2008 bid, raises questions about her judgment, Chafee has said.
“I don't think anybody should be president of the United States that made that mistake,” Chafee told the Washington Post in April. “It's a huge mistake, and we live with broad, broad ramifications today—of instability not only in the Middle East but far beyond and the loss of American credibility. There were no weapons of mass destruction.”
Chafee was the only then-Republican senator to vote against authorizing the Iraq War, so he has bona fides there. Otherwise, he has his work cut out for him in a Democratic primary. He's currently polling at about one percent.