I Can't Believe I Needed To Look This Up . . . .
This morning I found myself trying to discover whether the Democratic Presidential candidates condone torture. Talk about depressing.
I was rather stunned to read Obama asserting that Clinton at one time supported torture:
It’s time for new leadership that understands that the way to win a debate with John McCain is not by nominating [Hillary Clinton] . . . who actually differed with [McCain] by arguing for exceptions for torture before changing positions when the politics of the moment changed.
And she did.
From The Fact Hub: The straight scoop on the '08 campaign from the Hillary Clinton campaign:
Sen. Obama accuses Hillary of changing her policy on torture due to ‘the politics of the moment.’ He couldn’t be more wrong. Hillary met with retired generals, talked with experienced military officers, and read reports commissioned by the Defense Intelligence Agency. She concluded that 'torture cannot be part of American policy, period.'
I don't know why she changed her mind, but that's insignificant. Her new position seems to be that torture is not okay because it doesn't work. So, torture was once okay, and - if Clinton were convinced it worked - it would presumably be okay again.
I'm not just depressed. I think I want to vomit.
Comments:
· http://freewheelingspirit.blogspot.com 
Permalink
02/05/08 @ 12:05 I feel real pride and great hope when I experience the civility, intelligence, and ability to cooperate of my neighbors.
I also really love having the campaigns lose, at least a bit, control of the discussion. It's amazing to see at least some people change their minds based on what a neighbor thinks instead of stupid, flashy mailings or content-free, inane, and annoying computer calls.
Every now and then the "think tanks" and DLC try to eliminate our caucuses. If the caucuses were eliminated, another strand banding our neighborhood together would be severed. I already miss meeting my neighbors on election day at our local polling places. And it seems to be a loss with little compensating advantage -- I don't really grasp why electronic voting at mega-centers and mail-in ballots are deemed better. (The main advantage seems to be lower cost.)
(If we dispensed with our caucuses, we would also be surrendering, again, to the great, contentless, marketing machine.)
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02/06/08 @ 07:32 · http://freewheelingspirit.blogspot.com Permalink
02/06/08 @ 14:21 
