Hillary and Her Iraq Vote

The pundits seem to have congealed around the point that Hillary loses because of her initial support for the Iraq war/occupation, her yes vote.

Within my small circle of friends, here in New York, she is not popular for many reasons including her war support. Its a big reason but not all of it.

During her senate re-election campaign in 2006, she faced Tasini in the Democratic primary. Tasini was the anti-war progressive. His platform was impressive. He was steamrolled by Clinton. Her political machine didn't allow Tasini to see the light of day. There were no debates, he failed to meet arbitrary funding levels for various network coverage, yet Tasini captured 17% of the vote. Almost one in five went for Tasini who had virtually no media support. It was a pure grass roots campaign.