Bhutto’s death will “call into issue the judgment: who’s made the right judgments?

[Flabbergasted]

http://thepage.time.com/axelrod-on-bhutto-assassination/

Axelrod on Bhutto AssassinationFrom TIME’s Jay Newton-Small:

David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s top strategist, told reporters after the speech that Clinton will not benefit from a renewed conversation about foreign policy in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Pakistan.

Bhutto’s death will “call into issue the judgment: who’s made the right judgments,” Axelrod said. “Obviously, one of the reasons that Pakistan is in the distress that it’s in is because al-Qaeda is resurgent, has become more powerful within that country and that’s a consequence of us taking the eye off the ball and making the wrong judgment in going into Iraq. That’s a serious difference between these candidates and I’m sure that people will take that into consideration.”

Foreign policy had been considered by many to be Clinton’s strength and a subject that had been waning ahead of the caucuses as candidates focused their closing arguments on domestic issues. Axelrod argued a focus on Pakistan does not help Clinton, who voted to give President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq.

“She was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq, which we would submit, was one of the reasons why we were diverted from Afghanistan, Pakistan and al-Qaeda, who may have been players in this event today, so that’s a judgment she’ll have to defend,” Axelrod said. “I know Woody Allen said that 80% of life is just showing up but there’s actually more to being proficient in foreign policy than just having been around for a long time. You also have to have good judgment. Obama was willing to split with the conventional wisdom on Iraq and many of these other issues and I think events have borne out his judgment.”

[DemKR]

1. Audacity to hope huh

[Perry Logan]

2. Audacity to use the word "judgment."

[Evergreen Emerald]

3. Clinton's response was awesome

She is not talking about it politically. She is not suggesting that she has more experience, and therefore it better for the country based on this assassination.

She is talking personally about the woman she knew and her family. Very touching. Very appropriate. Clinton took the high road

[NYCGirl]

5. No, she sent Evan Bayh out to do that:

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/12/27/535372.aspx

In Iowa, when reporters pressed a Clinton campaign spokesman about whether the New York senator she would take any questions from the press about Bhutto's assassination, he said she did not want to be seen as exploiting it.

But that didn't stop Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh (D) -- campaigning here on Clinton's behalf -- from arguing that the assasination showed the need for a president with “seasoning.”

Bayh, a red-state Democrat who endorsed Clinton in September, actually learned of Bhutto’s killing when one of the two-dozen voters gathered here asked him for his reaction. “There is a deep strain of radicalism,” he said, “and this assassination is a manifestation of that.”

[rodeodance]

6. yes, i hope she stays above the fray

[lovuian]

4. Well Bhutto

made the wrong choice