Hillary's Spin Cycle on War Vote

The wheels keep spinning over at Hillary Central as they try to find ways to deal with the firestorm that is Clinton's 2002 vote on the Iraq war. Other Senators, such as Kerry and Edwards have prostrated themselves at the feet of the wacky left and proclaimed their pro-war votes a "mistake", but Clinton refuses to do so. Glenn Reynolds calls it "backbone", but I'm not so sure. Haven't we all known people who were so sure of their own omnipotence that to admit an error was a worse fate than death? I think that's what's going on with Hillary.

The NY Times has a piece out in which the Hillary camp has come up with a new variant on her decision to support the war. This one's pretty much an "in-your-face" to the wacky left:

One of the most important decisions that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made about her bid for the presidency came late last year when she ended a debate in her camp over whether she should repudiate her 2002 vote authorizing military action in Iraq.

Several advisers, friends and donors said in interviews that they had urged her to call her vote a mistake in order to appease antiwar Democrats, who play a critical role in the nominating process. Yet Mrs. Clinton herself, backed by another faction, never wanted to apologize — even if she viewed the war as a mistake — arguing that an apology would be a gimmick.

In the end, she settled on language that was similar to Senator John Kerry’s when he was the Democratic nominee in 2004: that if she had known in 2002 what she knows now about Iraqi weaponry, she would never have voted for the Senate resolution authorizing force.

Yet antiwar anger has festered, and yesterday morning Mrs. Clinton rolled out a new response to those demanding contrition: She said she was willing to lose support from voters rather than make an apology she did not believe in.

“If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from,” Mrs. Clinton told an audience in Dover, N.H., in a veiled reference to two rivals for the nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.

Her decision not to apologize is regarded so seriously within her campaign that some advisers believe it will be remembered as a turning point in the race: either ultimately galvanizing voters against her (if she loses the nomination), or highlighting her resolve and her willingness to buck Democratic conventional wisdom (if she wins).

At the same time, the level of Democratic anger has surprised some of her allies and advisers, and her campaign is worried about how long it will last and how much damage it might cause her.

Just how important is the "mistake" word to the wacky left? Just look at how Kos, proprietor of the wacky left's largest and loudest website, reacted to this same article:

I don't want her to apologize. I want her to say, "I made a mistake." Edwards did it. Just about every other Democrat who idiotically trusted this president and supported the war has done it. Had Hillary done this last year, the issue would be moot.

And does she really want to argue that her vote wasn't wrong?

Apparently so....

With California moving up its primary, my vote will actually matter next year. And now I can officially narrow down my choices to Edwards, Obama, and Richardson. [Update: Clark as well, if he ever decides to run. Some of the others could be possibilities. Hillary joins only Kucinich and Biden on my "no way" list.] ...

For Hillary, No amount of nuance will make this issue go away.
Today she lost my potential vote. I doubt I'm the only person in this position. Thankfully, as Hillary so helpfully pointed out, the rest of the field 1) didn't make the mistake to begin with, or 2) aren't afraid to admit their mistakes

Primary voters tend to be the most partisan members of that particular party, and if the wacky left turns out in force to oppose Hillary because of the war vote, it will spell trouble for her ability to win the nomination.