A fine example of what should be asked of the junior senator from New York occurred on Friday’s “Real Time” when host Bill Maher posed the following to John Edwards (video available here courtesy of our friend at Ms Underestimated, forward to 4:30):
Alright, let me ask you about your vote in 2002, the vote to authorize George Bush to at least have the authority to go to war. Uh, your response to that was to write an editorial which began with the words “I was wrong,” words you don’t usually hear from a politician.. Uh, Hillary Clinton says, “I was misled.” So, what’s the difference between “I was wrong” and “I was misled?”
Great question. Envision anybody like Tim Russert, Brian Williams, Chris Matthews, Matt Lauer, etc., asking Hillary Clinton such a question? Doubtful, correct?
For the record, this was Edwards’ response:
Uh, “I was wrong” means – I’m only speaking for me – means that I take responsibility for making a serious mistake on a vote that was probably the most important vote I cast in the United States Senate. Uh, I think we desperately need, uh, leaders in this country who will admit when they were wrong. We’re all human. All of us make mistakes. Admit when we’re wrong, change course, take responsibility, uh, for being wrong. I don’t think you can have, uh, the foundation for leadership, the moral foundation for leadership, if you don’t start by telling the truth. And, at least for me, this is the truth.
Now, say what you will about Edwards, but I find this answer to be extraordinarily refreshing, and the only honest response that should be accepted of any political leader on either side of the aisle who is now disavowing his or her vote on this crucial issue.
Furthermore, as the media have continually -- at virtually every press conference and opportunity to do so -- pressured President Bush to admit mistakes concerning this war, it is unconscionable that the leading candidate for the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination gets a pass on this issue. In fact, it’s a sham that the media allow any Democrat to state that he or she was misled in October 2002 by President Bush, for as Edwards accurately stated, such a person lacks “the moral foundation for leadership.”
Despite this seemingly obvious truth, it appears quite unlikely that any media member is going to challenge the junior senator from New York about this crucial issue, and that she, as the former first lady, and a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, will be allowed to continue to cynically present herself to the American people as having been misled by a Republican president concerning the most important vote of her life.
Liberal media bias? What liberal media bias?
