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• Sunday, June 17, 2007 09:00 PM

  To lonbud:

  Intelligence and competence as the major difference between our former president Bill Clinton and our current president George W. Bush is quite important, considering where we are now with GWB. Iraq is an issue but it is not the only issue. GWB is in the process of dismantling our constitution by using the war as cover for a presidential power grab. This is about the only thing he has done competently.

  However, if GWB were intelligent, perhaps he would not have been so easily manipulated by the neocons he chose to advise him. Would he still be a shallow, power-hungry bastard? Surely. I am not sure he would be any more dangerous.

  Whether or not we would have gone to war with Iraq if Bill Clinton had had a third term is easy to speculate upon but impossible to determine. Whether or not Gore would have gone to war with Iraq is also impossible to determine. Whether or not Kerry could have extricated us from the mess is also impossible to determine. If I had a dollar for every American who supported the war but now opposes it, I would be a rich woman indeed.

  The real questions that matter are where all the candidates stand on a number of issues and can we trust them to be truthful about the stands they say they will take. In other words, when their lips are moving, are they lying?

  In this interview at least, Senator Clinton seems straightforward. While the interview was a good one, I keep wondering when anyone in the media is going to really try to pin the candidates down on what they each will do to rollback those decisions -- like the suspension of the right of habeas corpus -- that are much more of a threat to our freedom than any terrorist attack or even the war itself.

  I hate to sound utterly cynical, but I too doubt any of them will truly withdraw all our troops from Iraq. Bluntly, there is too much oil there. I suspect we will continue our conquest of oil nations no matter which party is in power and no matter who holds the presidency. Bill Richardson talks impetuously, he promises the moon, and he has been caught lying more recently than any of them.

  —AKA Smith Read AKA Smith's other letters
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