Iraq vote puts Clinton, Obama on the spot

WASHINGTON: In a compelling sideshow to Thursday's Iraq war budget drama in the US Congress, White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama placed potentially fateful bets by voting against troop funding.   

In a moment fraught with political peril, the two senators both sided with the Democratic party's fervently anti-war base, in opposing more than 100 billion dollars in emergency supplemental funding for the unpopular war.   

Meanwhile, Senator Joseph Biden, a foreign policy veteran running a long-shot campaign, appeared torn between his conscience and political ambitions, and admitted his "yes" vote would take some explaining.   

Another aspiring Democratic candidate, Senator Christopher Dodd, said the Congress made a "grave mistake" after sending President George W. Bush a budget stripped of troop withdrawal timetables also passed by the House of Representatives Thursday.   

The vote on war funding came as a new poll showed a record number of people in the United States are pessimistic about the outcome in Iraq and now believe the war was a mistake.    

Seventy-six per cent of Americans think the war is going badly, up ten per centage points in one month, according to the CBS News/New York Times opinion poll. And 61 per cent said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq.   

Only 14 senators voted against the budget, as most Democrats joined Republicans in backing it, conscious that in the very patriotic United States, politicians have little to gain by risking being seen as unsupportive of troops.   

But all eyes were on Clinton and Obama, who along with former senator John Edwards, make up a fiercely competitive top tier of the White House race.   

Obama appeared in the chamber for the evening vote first, shot the breeze with a couple of colleagues, then went up to the clerk and revealed his vote.   

"Mr Obama. Mr Obama. No," she said, as the man vying to be the United States' first black president strolled calmly away. "With my vote today, I am saying to the president that enough is enough," Obama said later in a written statement.   

"We must negotiate a better plan that funds our troops, signals to the Iraqis that it is time for them to act and that begins to bring our brave servicemen and women home safely and responsibly."   

Whether by design or not, Clinton entered the Senate almost as soon as Obama had left by another door, and swiftly recorded her 'no' vote.   

"Tonight I voted against the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill because it fails to compel the president to give our troops a new strategy in Iraq," Clinton said in her own statement.   

"I believe that the president should begin a phased redeployment of our troops out of Iraq and abandon this escalation." Clinton is frequently asked by anti-war activists to explain her 2002 vote to authorize Bush to wage war in Iraq.   

Declining to apologize, Clinton has said she takes responsibility for her vote, but blames Bush for giving "empty assurances" on finding a diplomatic solution.   

She has also said that given what is known now about erroneous intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, Congress would never have been asked to justify the war.

Obama has indirectly skewered Clinton over her vote, repeatedly reminding his audiences that he was against the war all along.   

The Illinois freshman had however one big advantage -- he was not in the Senate when the vote was cast in a febrile political atmosphere just over a year after the September 11, 2001 attacks.   

Democrats do not have to look far for evidence of how Senate votes on Iraq war funding bills can scupper presidential campaigns.   

The 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry was pilloried by the Bush campaign for his clumsy explanation of a series of Senate votes on war funding which included the notorious line: "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars, before I voted against it."   

By voting "no" Thursday, Clinton and Obama insulated themselves from attacks from the party's base.   

But if either goes on to win the nomination, they have all but assured they will face Republican accusations in hard-hitting campaign ads that they "deserted" troops in harm's way.   

A conflicted Biden noted the damage his vote could do as he attempts to run down the top tier trio.   

"In my present pursuit it's not a smart vote for me to make, because it requires explanation."   

"The president may be prepared to play a game of political chicken with the well-being of our troops. I am not. I will not."   

Edwards meanwhile, who voted for the war in 2002 but has since repudiated his vote, also issued a statement.   

"Washington failed America today when Congress surrendered to the president's demand for another blank check that prolongs the war in Iraq. It is time for this war to end," Edwards said.