A "Real" Young Turk Asks An Embarrassing Question

When has Hillary Clinton led her side to victory?

By: Cenk Uygur (of AAR's "Young Turks")
Oct 8, 2007 07:37 PM EST

The case against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is easily put. Where is the leadership? She has been one of the most prominent and powerful senators while the worst president in history has been in office. And what has she done about it?
I’ll give you time to think about it …

Come up with nothing? There’s a good reason for that. Because the answer is nothing. Did she stop the Iraq war? I’ll give you time to stop laughing. Did she stop the surge — after four awful, miserable years of the Iraq war had already taken place? No.

Worse yet, did she even try? She had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to vote against funding the war. And finally she relented and voted the right way after she checked all the polls and all of the other candidates’ votes and looked to see which way the wind was blowing.

Remember the vote in May for funding the war, where she wouldn’t publicly disclose her position and sneaked in a couple of minutes after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) voted to cast her ballot the same way he did? Does that sound like leadership to you? Not exactly a profile in courage.

But even if you grant that she has been voting the right way the past couple of months, that still doesn’t prove leadership.

When has she led her side to victory?

When has she marshaled the forces, taken a courageous stand and held her ground? Forget courageous stand, when has she ever simply led the Democrats into any fight or any action at all?

I’m still waiting...Please tell me about how you don’t have the numbers to win cloture votes. A real leader argues for her position, either convinces her colleagues or the American people, uses the levers of power, puts pressure on her opponents and allies — and gets the job done. Is she even trying?

I see her campaigning all the time. I see her focused on Democratic primary rivals Obama and John Edwards. I understand she has a job to do — avoiding mistakes on the campaign trail. Boy, I’m inspired.

Don’t get me wrong, Obama is no gem, either. He claims he has enough experience to lead the country but not enough to lead his fellow senators. They won’t listen to him because he is a junior senator. Well, then, how do we know they’ll listen to you when you’re president?

How many votes can Obama hide from while claiming to be an inspirational leader? With leaders like this, we have the audacity of hopelessness.

I don’t have a dog in this fight. I’m not impressed by any of them. I’m also not impressed by Al Gore running for Oscars and Nobel Prizes instead of running for the White House. You could get into the fight and risk your reputation while trying to help your country. That would be brave. Or you could take the easy way out and sit on your couch and bellyache about what the Bush administration is doing to the Constitution.

If I seem down on Democratic leadership, I have excellent reasons. Because there is no leadership. In August, they lost a fight on the FISA bill (actually, what fight?) giving the government new powers to spy on Americans. They just allowed Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to pass two bills that threaten war against Iran — again, without a fight. They just lost votes on withdrawing troops from Iraq — again.

And all of these losses are against the most persistently unpopular president of our lifetime. If you’re not down on these Democratic “leaders,” then you’re not paying attention.

But above all of them stands Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is comfortably leading the race for her party’s presidential nomination. She has the bully pulpit. The press will listen to whatever she says. She can make an impact. She is in a position to lead.
And what has she done with that?
I’m still waiting …

Please tell me about how you don’t have the numbers to win cloture votes. A real leader argues for her position, either convinces her colleagues or the American people, uses the levers of power, puts pressure on her opponents and allies — and gets the job done. Is she even trying?

I see her campaigning all the time. I see her focused on Democratic primary rivals Obama and John Edwards. I understand she has a job to do — avoiding mistakes on the campaign trail. Boy, I’m inspired.

Don’t get me wrong, Obama is no gem, either. He claims he has enough experience to lead the country but not enough to lead his fellow senators. They won’t listen to him because he is a junior senator. Well, then, how do we know they’ll listen to you when you’re president?

How many votes can Obama hide from while claiming to be an inspirational leader? With leaders like this, we have the audacity of hopelessness.

I don’t have a dog in this fight. I’m not impressed by any of them. I’m also not impressed by Al Gore running for Oscars and Nobel Prizes instead of running for the White House. You could get into the fight and risk your reputation while trying to help your country. That would be brave. Or you could take the easy way out and sit on your couch and bellyache about what the Bush administration is doing to the Constitution.

If I seem down on Democratic leadership, I have excellent reasons. Because there is no leadership. In August, they lost a fight on the FISA bill (actually, what fight?) giving the government new powers to spy on Americans. They just allowed Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to pass two bills that threaten war against Iran — again, without a fight. They just lost votes on withdrawing troops from Iraq — again.
And all of these losses are against the most persistently unpopular president of our lifetime. If you’re not down on these Democratic “leaders,” then you’re not paying attention.
But above all of them stands Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is comfortably leading the race for her party’s presidential nomination. She has the bully pulpit. The press will listen to whatever she says. She can make an impact. She is in a position to lead.
And what has she done with that?
I’m still waiting …

I cannot find the source for this. I got it, sans link, in E-mail.