Hillary Doesn't Want the Job

Hillary Clinton isn't excited about the possibility of becoming president with a war still going on in Iraq:

DAVENPORT, Iowa - Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that President Bush should withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq before he leaves office, asserting it would be "the height of irresponsibility" to pass the war along to the next commander in chief.

"This was his decision to go to war with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy," the Democratic senator from New York said her in initial presidential campaign swing through Iowa.

"We expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office" in January 2009, the former first lady said.

The White House condemned Clinton's comments as a partisan attack that undermines U.S. soldiers.

About 130,000 American troops are in Iraq and Bush has announced he was sending 21,500 more as part of his new war strategy.

Clinton held a town hall-style forum attended by about 300 activists, giving a brief speech before taking questions for nearly an hour. Pressed to defend her vote to authorize force in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, Clinton responded by stepping up her criticism of Bush.

"I am going to level with you, the president has said this is going to be left to his successor," Clinton said. "I think it is the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it."

The only conclusion that I can come to is that Hillary doesn't want the job unless it's guaranteed to be easy. If she resents anything it's the fact that she voted for the war and now has to try and spin that vote into something else.

UPDATE: Great minds think alike - from James S. Robbins at The Corner:

Another way to read Hillary Clinton's demand that the US be out of Iraq by 2009 is that were she President she would not be able to handle it. So she'd rather it just go away. It does not bode well for her ability to cut it with other crises that will undoubtedly face us in the future. If she has nothing substantive to say with respect to Iraq then how can she justify running for President at all, other than as a servant of her own ambition?