Pressed to defend her Iraq war vote, Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday there are no «do-overs in life» and Democrats need a presidential nominee who inspires confidence on national security, reported The Associated Press. In her first campaign tour through this early nominating state, the New York senator and presidential candidate told party activists that Democrats in the 2008 election will face «someone on the other side who will be very tough and strong, even bellicose perhaps.» That likely was a reference to Republican Senator John McCain, who has taken a hard line in supporting more U.S. troops to Iraq, as U.S. President George W. Bush has announced. The former first lady, who announced her candidacy last weekend, said Democrats cannot concede the security issue. «We have to nominate someone who can have the trust and confidence of the American people to make the tough decisions as commander in chief,» the former first lady said. «That is the threshold issue.» Attention focused on Iraq and her vote to authorize the use of force before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Presidential rivals such as former Senator John Edwards now say the vote in support was a mistake. «There are no do-overs in life,» Clinton said. She says Congress received bad information going into the vote and that she would have voted differently given what she knows now. «As a senator from New York, I lived through 9/11 and I am still dealing with the aftereffects,» Clinton said. «I may have a slightly different take on this from some of the other people who will be coming through here.» Clinton has urged a cap to the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, but has refused to go along with suggestions that Congress use its power of the purse to bring the war to a halt. «This will be a problem that will be left to the next president,» the senator said. «We've got to figure out now, given where we are, how we go forward.»
