Is U.S. Safer Since 9/11? Clinton and Rivals Spar / NYTimes

[Demeter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/us/politics/06dems.html?ref=us

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June 6, 2007
Is U.S. Safer Since 9/11? Clinton and Rivals Spar

By MICHAEL COOPER and PATRICK HEALY


The Bush administration’s efforts to thwart terrorism at home have created a fissure among the three leading Democratic presidential candidates, with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton coming under attack for saying that America is safer now than before 9/11 — contrary to a popular line of argument among some Democratic officials.

In a televised debate on Sunday night, Mrs. Clinton, who has tried to minimize her differences with her rivals on commander-in-chief issues, bluntly disagreed with a main rival, former Senator John Edwards, who had just said that the administration’s so-called war on terror was little more than a slogan.

“I believe we are safer than we were,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We are not yet safe enough, and I have proposed over the last year a number of policies that I think we should be following.”

The senator, a New York Democrat, was referring to domestic security efforts since Sept. 11, 2001, and not to the consequences of the war in Iraq or President Bush’s foreign policy, her advisers say. Yet rival Democratic campaigns, arguing that the war in Iraq has harmed security in America by breeding terrorists, are using the remark to highlight differences with her on the issue of the ability to be commander in chief, which political analysts view as a threshold issue for any woman running for president.

I GUESS IT DEPENDS WHAT YOUR DEFINITION OF "SAFE" IS!

[damntexdem]

1. Hillary made an idiotic statement.

Now she pays for it.

[Demeter]

2. One of Many, Unfortunately

Triangulation does that to a person.

[marmar]

3. Agreed. I was not a big Hillary fan to begin with....

but that foolishly triangulated statement was a real disappointment. Stand for something, not everything.

[Parche]

4. 9/11

NO NO NO NO
We are never safe with a Bush in office...................

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Hillary worshippers rushing to the defence in 5...4...3...2...1 nt

[frylock]

6. hillary rodham guliani..

i was in new york on 911 blahblahblah.

[MasonJar]

7. Maybe, but we were not safe pre-9/11 because we had a cabal

of warmongering corporatists in the WH.