Hillary Clinton raps Bush’s handling of war

Dan Kulin

Monday, Jan. 5, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

During a fund-raising trip to Las Vegas on Sunday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq and domestic policies that have brought back huge budget deficits.

But the former first lady, appearing on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," also repeated earlier pledges that she will not jump into the race for president. The interview runs today at 4:30 p.m. on Las Vegas ONE, Cox cable Channels 1 and 19. The show will be rebroadcast at 5:30 and 8 p.m. today and 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Clinton, D-N.Y., said the Bush administration "did not have a post-conflict plan" for the Iraq war.

"We never had enough troops for the kind of stability and security mission that we were expected to perform," she said.

She said that now the U.S. should reach out to NATO to help beef up security forces in Iraq.

Clinton also criticized the president's decision to prohibit nations that did not aid in the war effort from receiving reconstruction contracts.

"I share the frustration," Clinton said. "But there's a smart way of doing it and a not-so-smart way of doing it."

Clinton said the president shouldn't have so publicly affronted other countries with a stake in Iraq. His tone and policy was too antagonistic, she said.

Clinton's comments came before a private fund-raiser. Details of her trip were not immediately available.

On the domestic front, she said the Bush administration took the economic improvement made during her husband's presidency -- the elimination of budget deficits, for example -- and has "thrown that out the window" with "disastrous tax and budget policies."

But Clinton said she can't see a scenario in which she would run for president this year.

"I will be supporting whoever the nominee is," Clinton said.

Clinton said she thinks Bush is vulnerable on domestic and foreign policy issues and said the presidential debates will greatly influence the outcome of the election.

"The debates will be more important in this election than they have been in a long time," Clinton said.

Clinton said she and former President Clinton have given advice and encouragement to several Democratic candidates, including Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, and retired Gen. Wesley Clark.

Clinton laughed off reports that she and her husband were looking for a Democratic nominee that would lose to Bush and clear the way for a Hillary Clinton presidential run in four years.

"We think the country's going in the wrong direction so why would we stand by and not do everything we could to elect a Democrat when if we were successful it would make a huge difference in making our country, I think, better off than four more years of George Bush?"