AP: Obama, Clinton "appeased" base

The #1 rule of horse race journalism is that all decisions are motivated by politics.

The latest example: Associated Press writer Liz Sidoti's assertions that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opposed the Iraq war funding bill because they are "[c]ourting the anti-war constituency" and that their votes "appeased the Democratic base"::

Courting the anti-war constituency, Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama both voted against legislation that pays for the Iraq war but lacks a timeline for troop withdrawal.

...Their votes Thursday night continued a shift in position for the two presidential hopefuls, both of whom began the year shunning a deadline for a troop withdrawal.

...Both Clinton and Obama have faced intense pressure from the party's liberal wing and Democratic presidential challengers who urged opposition to the measure because it doesn't include a timeline to pull forces out of Iraq.

...With their "no" votes, Clinton, Obama and Dodd earned praise from the party's left flank, which has been pushing for a quick end to the war and is an important part of the Democratic base in the primaries.

"This bold stand by three of the four presidential candidates in the Senate won't soon be forgotten," promised Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org's political action committee.

Although they appeased the Democratic base, Clinton, Obama and Dodd did open themselves up to criticism from Republicans that they were denying 165,000 troops the resources they need — an argument that could be damaging in a general election.

Did politics play a role? Of course. But isn't it possible that they ultimately decided to oppose the bill on principle? Sidoti doesn't know what their motivations were (and neither do I).

Comments

[Anon Patriot]

Brendan,

Thanks for calling Sidoti out on this.

The first line of her piece personally offended me, "Courting the anti-war constituency" seemed deliberately deceitful on Sidoti's part as it's the anti-IRAQ-war constituency who Obama and Clinton are addressing.

Neither candidate is "anti-war" but gratefully have stepped up to be anti-STUPID-Republican-waged-war.