What a pathetic little saga. When ABC News asked Hillary Clinton yesterday if she agreed with General Peter Pace’s comment that homosexuality is “immoral,” Clinton responded, “Well I’m going to leave that to others to conclude.” This despite her long history of supporting the gay community and her previously stated opposition to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
It was either the biggest brain fart of the campaign season to date, or a really, really ugly attempt to tack to the center — what’s a little bigotry in the name of campaign-season moderation? I’ve always agreed with the sentiment that Clinton is running for the general election, not the primary — everything she says and does is geared towards making her palatable to the country as a whole, not just the hardcore Dems that vote in primaries. But nonetheless, this is insane.
And the Clinton camp thought so too. So later in the day, the communications folks there released a statement from Clinton saying, “I disagree with what [Pace] said and do not share his view, plain and simple…. It is inappropriate to inject such personal views into this public policy matter, especially at a time in which there are young men and women in such grave circumstances in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in other dangerous places around the world.”
There are rumors that Barack Obama also dodged the question when asked about it yesterday. If so, expect another indignant blog post later in the day.