Previously at Limes: Another Obama Foreign Policy Gaffe, MSM Ignores It (Again); Updated
Now we have this. Yesterday in a speech Obama slammed Hillary Clinton for not reading the National Intelligence Report prior to her vote of approval for the Iraq war. The Senator from Illinois then went on to compare her actions to that of Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia claiming that he had read the NIE report, which Rockefeller had, too bad he voted for the war also just as Clinton did.
WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Clinton campaign officials have accused Democratic rival Barack Obama of making a ‘flub’ during an Ohio speech in which he described the Iraq war vote cast by a leading senator who endorsed him.And then we have the Washington Post covering for their candidate. In this report from the W.P. you find nothing about Obama's latest gaffe while trying to appear candid and intelligent.
Obama criticized Clinton expressly for failing to read the classified National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s weapons capabilities, a report available at the time of her October 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war.
He said that Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow Democrat from neighboring West Virginia, had read the intelligence estimate as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and after a brief pause said the then-chairman had voted against the war resolution.
However, Rockefeller was not the chair at the time and voted in favor of the war authorization. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida was the intelligence committee chair in 2002 and voted against the resolution. Obama did not mention Graham’s name in the passage.
“She didn’t read the National Intelligence Estimates. Jay Rockefeller read it. But she didn’t read it. (And after a 13-second pause) I don’t know what all that experience got her because I have enough experience to know that if you have a National Intelligence Estimate and the chairman of the national…umm…Senate Intelligence Committee says you should read this, this is why I’m voting against the war, that you should probably read it. I don’t know how much experience you need for that.”
WESTERVILLE, Ohio - Sen. Barack Obama shot down his rival's contention that his candidacy is built around his Iraq opposition and leveled a direct challenge to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's claim to lengthy foreign policy credentials.Objectionable reporting right? I'm currently looking for video of the speech at the townhall meeting. When I find it I will be sure to update this post. If you happen to find it online before it's posted here please feel free to send me the link, full credit will be given where it is due.
Speaking this afternoon at a local high school, at the start of a packed town hall meeting, Obama was unusually blunt and emphatic, underscoring the intensity of these final campaign days before the big Texas and Ohio showdowns on Tuesday.
"Now in the last few days, Sen. Clinton goes running around telling people that the entire campaign, according to her, is only based on the fact that I gave a speech in opposition to the war in Iraq from the start," Obama said. "That that is the only basis of my campaign, and on the other hand she has, supposedly, all this vast foreign policy experience."
He continued, "I have to say that when it came to making the most important foreign policy decision of our generation, the decision to invade Iraq, Sen. Clinton got it wrong."
Obama noted that Clinton had cast her 2002 authorization vote without reading the 90-page classified National Intelligence Estimate, which raised serious enough concerns that former Sen. Bob Graham, then-chair of the Senate intelligence panel, cited the NIE as a reason he voted against the war.
"I don't know what all that experience got her, because I have the experience to know that...if the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says you should read this, this is why I voted against the war, then you should probably read it," said Obama.
"We're still waiting to hear Sen. Clinton tell us what precise foreign policy experience that she is claiming, that makes her prepared to answer that phone call at three in the morning," Obama said to deafening cheers, a reference to Clinton's "red phone" television ad, running until Tuesday in Texas.
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