Why Hillary Clinton's Position on Iraq May be Very Smart Politically

On September 29, 2007, we put up an entry on how Clinton's framing of the Iraq War and its handling is becoming the accepted framing by all top three Democratic candidates. (By top three we are referring to their poll numbers, not any subjective rating of their abilities.)

Today, October 1, 2007, there is an article out about how United States military deaths are down in Iraq. The death toll for American military personnel was the lowest it has been all year. You can be sure that the Republicans and their media allies will seize upon stories like this one to push the theme that (1) Bush's "surge", or as they will refer to it, Petraeus's surge, is working and (2) Democrats are just people who want to run when the going gets tough militarily and therefore (3) they can't be trusted on national security issues.

That's where Clinton's position of avoiding firm deadlines for Iraq troop withdrawal comes in and may be politically smart. By saying that she won't commit to having troops out by the end of her first term, she is making it much harder to attack her if she is the Democratic presidential nominee. Next year, if she is the Democratic nominee, she will try to keep the focus on the Republicans' performance in office, especially regarding Iraq. They will try to portray her as weak on national security as well as a host of other things. Her framing of the Iraq War issue will make it much harder to do that with regard to "swing" voters, ie, voters who do not have a strong partisan identification.