As liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen sarcastically notes, Hillary is basically saying that she was "tricked" into voting for the war:

    Yet another man has betrayed Hillary Clinton. This time it's George W. Bush, who not only deceived her about weapons of mass destruction but, when granted congressional authorization to go to war in Iraq, actually did so. This, apparently, came as a surprise to her, although in every hamlet and village in America... knew that Bush was going to take the country to war. Among other things, troops were already being dispatched.

    Somehow, Bush's intentions were lost on Clinton, who then as now was a member of the United States Senate.


Cohen goes on to note that, basically, what Clinton has done isn't take a principled stand, but flip flop, as public opinion moves about

    In Clinton's case, she is dead center in American public opinion, foursquare for what's popular and courageously opposed to what's not. Most Americans oppose a precipitous pullout from Iraq and -- surprise! -- so does Clinton.

    Too often when a candidate throws his hat into the ring, he tosses principle out the window. Yet this is precisely what we want in a president -- principles and the courage to stick to them. Instead of Clinton saying she had been misled by Bush and his merry band of fibbers, exaggerators and hallucinators, I'd like to hear an explanation of how she thinks she went wrong and what she learned from it. I don't want to know how Bush failed her. I want to know how she failed her country.