Regardless of my personal opinion on Hillary Clinton, I think this was a really good interview. Shapiro offered a good mix of personal (How do you feel about being called Hillary?) policy (How many troops will be left in Iraq?) and follow up (What have you learned in the senate specifically?) questions. Clinton's responses were substantive. I learned about the candidate, including how she communicates and how she thinks about the office of the president. These things are, in many ways, as important as particular policy decisions.

If most political writing were like this we would have a healthier democracy. I salute Shapiro for his interview and Clinton for her eloquence.

Are people paying attention to that?

Plus, she really offends with that "sectarian civil war" crap, which is most decidedly not what's going on there.

I know some people don't trust Hillary because she is always so prepared, pundits call her stiff and practiced. I always feel like we are seeing two different people. I like it that she is prepared. I don't have a problem that she is always the smartest person in the room ,I'm sure she has been since first grade, I find comfort in that. Others critize her for being overly ambitious..please. Who has ever become president without ambition? Now more than ever we need a smart, competent, person who will draw other smart, competent people to public service to try and help put things back together again. She is more centrist than the left likes and more business friendly. I think of her as a transition character who will be centrist therefore more able to reach compromises that might get government working again. Eight years of Hillary getting things fixed and then eight more years of a more progressive president might turn this country into a better place to live and gain back some of our lost respect in the World.

No President whether Republican nor Democrat will do a damn thing about Iraq. I thought you would have realized that by now. Any President will be looking to whatever political leverage 'doing something' with Iraq can used in relation to the 2010 Congressional elections. It doesn't matter a great deal whether that President is Hillary, Obama or some random Republican twit. I sometimes wonder why you people have utterly no perspective on history.

Well, before this turns into a Woodstock love-in, let me just say this-- I'm no fan on Hillary because: 1) I have real reservations about her oddly cautious and tentative approach to the Iraq quagmire and; 2) Based on recent polls,I have severe doubts about her electability.

Should she win the Democratic nomination, I fear she will just be another in a long line of Democratic candidates for which I have had to hold my nose and vote. And frankly, I'm just a little tired of having to SETTLE for yet one more fatally flawed candidate who got where they are because they know how to play the nomination game and who goes down in flames at the polls because that knowledge was their sole asset.

Lots of us out here support you 100% Senator Clinton! I would love to see you become president.