In a New York Minute...

IN A NEW YORK MINUTE

"In a New York Minute" per Don Henley's singing, "everything can change".

I have wondered many times during the past 18 months, in the aftermath of the Democratic Party's re-taking control of the House and Senate and the persistent and overwhelming antipathy among the base of Democratic voters toward the continued prosecution of the Iraq War, why in the world would Hillary Clinton continue to defend her 2002 IWR vote?

Politically "tone-deaf"? Fear of "looking weak"? Worried of being perceived as not "manly" enough to be CiC ? Perhaps.

But I've long suspected that it was another fear that compelled her to not apologize for the vote, or intimate that it was a mistake, and that she had been wrong, but also for her to be so belligerent in her campaign rhetoric and subsequent votes with regard to Iran and the use of military force.

It was/is the fear of another terrorist attack on the United States.

It is a justifiable fear, especially in political calculations.

For such an attack could immediately/overnight re-calibrate the political math of a general election, reviving the "spirit of 2002", and no pragmatic politician could take the chance of being caught on the wrong side of public opinion if it indeed happened.

But now it is May 2008. The majority of Democratic party primary/caucus and superdelegate voters have expressed their preference for a candidate that did not have to apologize for that vote, or admit to that mistake, and who purposefully emphasizes diplomacy in his rhetoric. So much so, that now the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States is almost completely beyond Hillary Clinton's reach.

Yet, according to Mr. Henley, "everything can change... in a New York Minute".
And indeed it can.

President Bush's approval ratings continue to hover near record lows for a record amount of time, the majority of the American public is now suffering economically with many making the connection to the current Administration's policies in Iraq, as the last embers of Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations begin to die out.

On September 9 2001, 2 individuals disguised as reporters exploded a bomb hidden in a camera that killed the Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Masood.

On October 6, 1981, as jets flew overhead, distracting the crowd, a troop truck in the military parade halted before the presidential reviewing stand, and a lieutenant strode forward. Sadat stood to receive his salute, whereupon the assassins rose from the truck, throwing grenades and firing assault rifle rounds. The attack lasted about two minutes. The lead assassin Khalid Islambouli shouted "Death to Pharaoh!" as he ran towards the stand and shot Anwar Sadat.

Would such an attack by Al Quaeda upon the presumptive Democratic nominee reverse the fortunes of the Bush Administration, the Clinton campaign, and restore American public support for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and on "Terror" to their former levels?

Let us all hope, and pray, that question is never answered.

stephenhsmith
12May2008