"I Was Wrong" or "I Was Misled"

There was an interesting post on DailyKos yesterday about how candidates are positioning themselves on the Iraq War.

Kos writes about John Edwards coming right out and saying that his vote for the Iraq War was a mistake and he was wrong and comparing it to Hillary Clinton's stance that she was misled. Kos concludes that Hillary is beholden to the consultant and Washington insiders. Here is a quote that I totally agree with from one of Hillary's campaign stops in New Hampshire over the weekend...

Roger Tilton, 46, a financial adviser from Nashua, N.H., told Clinton that unless she recanted her vote, he was not in the mood to listen to her other policy ideas.

"I want to know if right here, right now, once and for all and without nuance, you can say that war authorization was a mistake," Tilton said. "I, and I think a lot of other primary voters — until we hear you say it, we're not going to hear all the other great things you are saying."

Back in January, Drew Miller had a similar post examining the difference between the admitting you made a mistake on Iraq and saying knowing what we know now. Drew pretty much sums up my thoughts...

There is a big difference between "Well geez things sure turned out bad so of course in retrospect it was a bad idea" camp and the "It was a bad idea in the first place and we should have known it then" camp. Considering that most Democratic activists were against the war from the start, it's going to take more than just acknowledging that Iraq is a shitshow now to win our support.