GAME ON – AT 11:41 A.M. ET:  Hillary had to know this was coming.  The left is striking back at her weekend comments critizing the Obama foreign policy.  From The Politico: 

Hillary Clinton is giving some liberals flashbacks to 2008, and not in a good way.

Progressives are wincing over Clinton’s foreign policy comments in a blockbuster interview with The Atlantic, saying her statements are excessively hawkish and reminiscent of her past support for the war in Iraq. Some foreign policy experts, meanwhile, are criticizing her views as too simplistic; one analyst called them downright disloyal to President Barack Obama.

In the interview with prominent foreign affairs writer Jeffrey Goldberg, Clinton called Obama’s decision not to back Syrian rebels early on a “failure;” stood staunchly with Israel in its fight against Hamas; took a tough tone on Iran; and said that the West Wing’s foreign policy mantra — “Don’t do stupid stuff”— is “not an organizing principle.”

Clinton has always been more of a hawk than Obama, whom she served under as secretary of state during his first term. But for many liberals, whose enthusiasm will be important if she runs again for president in 2016, her comments simply felt like code for Bush-era interventionism.

“She basically seems to be taking positions that are very similar to the vision of America’s role in the world that [in 2008] Democrats rejected,” explained Michael Cohen, a fellow at the progressive Century Foundation. That approach, he said, was “out of touch with Democrats in 2008, and it’s out of touch now.”

Prominent liberal writer Joan Walsh wrote at Salon.com that she expects to support Clinton if she runs in 2016, but she called the interview “sobering.”

“Clinton may think she can write off the anti-interventionist left — again — and win the White House this time,” Walsh warned. “But she may find out she’s wrong this time, too.”

COMMENT:  Clinton doesn't do anything without calculation.  She may well calculate that this "anti-war" (read that "left wing") base is much smaller than a lot of people think.  However, she also knows that the stay-at-home lefties cost Hubert Humphrey the presidency in 1968 by not voting in November.  In other words, they don't have to have a candidate of their own to punish Hillary.  They showed in 1968 that they were willing to see Nixon as president as long as they could punish poor Humphrey for his support of the Vietnam War. 

August 12, 2014