Truth, Lies, & President Clinton

In a contentious taped interview that aired on "Fox News Sunday," former president Bill Clinton vigorously defended his efforts as president to capture and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him," Clinton said, referring to Afghanistan. "We do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is one-seventh as important as Iraq," he added, referring to the approximately 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

The fact that Mr. Clinton has to defend the efforts as President that the 9/11 Commission reported and in its findings found no fault with is truly sad. As Republicans get prepared for the Fall elections their tactic of wrapping candidates and the Party as a whole in the flag while campaigning on the issue of national security does not seem to work due to two factors.

One factor is an energized Democratic base, lead in part, by a vocal and energized former President. Another factor is that the American electorate at large no longer believes that the Republican Party can handle the issue of national security better than their Democratic opposition.