Crowd booes Clinton on troop withdrawals

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Hillary Rodham Clinton was booed Wednesday for the second year in a row by a liberal group that was not satisfied by her recent embrace of a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

"I love coming here every year," Clinton said facetiously over boos from the audience at the Take Back America conference in Washington. "I see the signs, 'Get Us Out of Iraq Now.' That's what we're trying to do."

Last year, Clinton was booed at the conference when she warned that it would not be "a smart strategy" to "set a date certain" for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. But earlier this year, she said she wanted troops out by January 2009.

On Wednesday, the junior senator from New York, who is running for president, tried to assuage anti-war activists by reminding them that she recently opposed funding for the war.

"I voted against the supplemental last month because I believe the best way to support our troops is finally to start bringing them home," the Democrat said.

"Now!" shouted a member of the audience.

Some Clinton supporters tried to drown out those who were booing by cheering loudly.

But there was no disguising the fact that Clinton received a rougher reception than Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who was not booed when he addressed the conference on Tuesday. Unlike Clinton, Obama opposed the Iraq war from the beginning.

"This is a hard-core crowd and they don't trust her," said Bay Buchanan, author of "The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton." "They see her as someone who's politically expedient, who's done what's in her best interest, abandoned their cause, and now she's coming back and pandering to them."

Buchanan said liberals no longer have to accept such behavior because they can support Obama.

"For many years, they thought they had no choice, but then Barack Obama showed up and they know he's the real thing," she said. "Even if it's not in his political interest, he will be who he is -- true to himself and to his beliefs. And that's what they want."

bsammon@dcexaminer.com

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