Redstate

By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in 2008 — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I realize that I am doing Barack Obama's campaign something of a favor here. So be it--if we are going to have ourselves an early campaign season, we may as well make it interesting:

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who chastised rival Barack Obama for ruling out the use of nuclear weapons in the war on terror, did just that when asked about Iran a year ago.

"I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table," she said in April 2006.

Her views expressed while she was gearing up for a presidential run stand in conflict with her comments this month regarding Obama, who faced heavy criticism from leaders of both parties, including Clinton, after saying it would be "a profound mistake" to deploy nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"There's been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That's not on the table," he said.

Clinton, who has tried to cast her rival as too inexperienced for the job of commander in chief, said of Obama's stance on Pakistan: "I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or non-use of nuclear weapons."

But that's exactly what she did in an interview with Bloomberg Television in April 2006. The New York senator, a member of the Armed Services committee, was asked about reports that the Bush administration was considering military intervention--possibly even a nuclear strike--to prevent Iran from escalating its nuclear program.

"I have said publicly no option should be off the table, but I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table," Clinton said. "This administration has been very willing to talk about using nuclear weapons in a way we haven't seen since the dawn of a nuclear age. I think that's a terrible mistake."

There is going to be (yet another) Democratic debate this evening. It will be interesting to see if Obama brings any of this up. He should; up until now, Hillary Clinton has benefited tremendously from the fact that no one has tripped her up during any of the debates. This could be a chance to throw her thus far relatively perfect game off stride.