Hillary Clinton Launches Online Petition in Support of Controversial Iraq War Spending Bill

After having breakfast in Mount Pleasant, Iowa with former presidential candidate Senator Tom Vilsack (former Iowa governor) and his wife Christy, presidential candidate and former First Lady Hillary Clinton debuted a new online petition on her website. According to a CNN article, "Clinton's online petition calls on supporters to 'join Hillary in telling him (Bush) to listen to the will of the people and to Congress, withdraw his veto threat, and begin phased deployment of the troops out of Iraq.'" (CNN article) In the petition, the presidential hopeful urges President Bush to listen to the will of Congress and the American people by not vetoing the Iraq War Spending Bill.

In recent days, the Iraq War Spending Bill has been the center of controversy as Congress is using it to set a time line to withdraw from Iraq. By threatening to veto the Iraq War Spending Bill, President Bush is also jeopardizing the war effort in Iraq. While the Pentagon would first feel the budget crisis, funding for the War in Iraq would be cutoff in May if both the legislative and executive branches of the United States government fail to agree on a spending bill for the Iraq War. By aggressively supporting the Iraq War Spending Bill, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is hoping to capitalize on the dissatisfaction with the handling of the Iraq War by the Bush Administration, which many political observers believe helped usher in a Democratic majority back in November.

Throughout the petition, Hillary Clinton repeatedly questions whether President Bush is serious about working with congressional Democrats. "'Mr. President, please work with us. Don't veto the will of the American people. Let's get together and see if we can work out an approach that will make it safe and expeditious for us to begin to bring our troops home,' Clinton said. Clinton said she supports a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops and it's time to bring them home. 'It is time for us to get them out of the middle of this sectarian civil war and it's time for the president and the vice president to quit impugning the patriotism of people who don't agree with them,' Clinton said." (CNN article) The White House has issued statements accusing Democratic supporters of the Iraq War Spending Bill of playing politics with the funding of troops.

In addition to publicizing her new online petition during the Iowa breakfast, Hillary Clinton added to the speculation that Tom Vilsack is being considered as a potential running mate by allowing him to hold a breakfast fundraiser for her campaign. Senator Vilsack, who was a presidential candidate himself until he dropped out of the race in February, has since unequivocally put his support behind Clinton. There have been rumors of a Clinton/Vilsack 2008 ticket ever since.