What is the lesson for the Netroots here? I think it is plain. Do not get bogged down in judging success by personalities and candidates. Judge success by your influence on the policy positions that become the mainstream of the Democratic Party.
Prior to this year, Hillary listend to Mark Penn and the DLC on Iraq. The Netroots won the battle with Penn and the DLC on Iraq:
MR. RUSSERT: The Daily News, your home paper in New York, said that your positions on Iraq remain a tangle of contradictory and shifting elements, and I want to go through those and see if we can sort it through for the viewers and the voters. A new brochure that you’ve passed out to the voters in New Hampshire says this: “Hillary will begin immediate phased withdrawal with a definite timetable to bring our troops home.”
When you were last on MEET THE PRESS, I asked you specifically about a definite timetable to bring troops home, and this is what you said. “I think that would be a mistake.” So don’t—“We don’t want to send a signal to the insurgents, to the terrorists that we’re going to be out of here at some, you know, date certain. I think that would be like a green light to go ahead and just bide your time.”
And then in December of ‘06: “I reject a rigid timetable that the terrorists can exploit.”
And a year ago in September of ‘06: “I’ve taken a lot of heat from my friends who’ve said, ‘Please, just, you know, throw in the towel and” “let’s get out by a date certain.’ I don’t think that’s responsible.”
You’ve changed your mind.
SEN. CLINTON: Well, the circumstances on the ground have certainly compelled me to continue to evaluate what is in the best interest of our country and our troops. And it became unfortunately clear to me that if we were to maintain the failed policy of this president, we will be entangled in Iraq with many more deaths, with very little to show for it, Tim. I have the highest admiration for General Petraeus and for his officers and the men and women on the ground in Iraq. But there is no military solution, and the failure of the Iraqi government and of the Bush administration to deal on either the political or the diplomatic front has put our young men and women at risk. There is no doubt that they can fulfill whatever military mission they’re given; they have. They were asked to get rid of Saddam Hussein and they did. They were asked to give the Iraqis the security for fair and free elections and they did. And they were asked to give the Iraqi government the space and time to start making these very difficult political decisions. Our military did everything it was asked to do. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the Iraqi government or the Bush administration has done what only they can do. And the only way to begin to keep faith with the men and women who are serving us is to begin to bring them home, and that is what I think we have to do now.
On Hillary's position on Iraq, the Netroots won. It does no good for Brooks or the Netroots to pretend otherwise.
Now the question for the Netroots is how can it affect Iraq policy now? The answer is simple - concentrate on the policy NOW as opposed to the personalities. Don't try to gin up issues for the Presidential candidates and stay focused on the issue at hand.
The issue now is how to end the Iraq Debacle. The way it can be done is by not funding it after a date certain. The Congress can do that. Let's try and win the Battle of Congress on Iraq. The Netroots already won the Battle of Hillary on Iraq.
