Clinton Antipathy Palpable at War Protest

Jan. 5, 2007 — -- Scores of protestors showed up Friday outside the Washington, D.C., offices of a pro-Iraq War think tank to voice their displeasure over President Bush's expected plan to send thousands of additional U.S. troops to Iraq.

"Hey, hey, ho, ho, this escalation has got to go," chanted a mixed-age group of protesters as they circled two city blocks in a light rain.

The instigating event was a pair of midday speeches to the American Enterprise Institute by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), two hawkish senators who support substantial and sustained troop escalations.

But McCain was not the only 2008 White House hopeful who found himself in the political cross hairs at today's protest.

"I'm scared to death of Hillary Clinton," said Kirsten Loken of Falling Waters, W.Va. "She is a divider."

Loken, a self-described feminist who has supported the National Organization for Women for many years, said she would "absolutely love" to see a female president of the United States.

"But not Hillary Clinton," she said, "not Hillary Clinton."

Loken is one of four West Virginians who met in 2004 while helping Sen. John Kerry's (D-Mass.) general-election campaign against Bush.

The four women, who traveled by car for more than an hour to Friday's protest organized by MoveOn.org, said they would "love" to see a female president -- but all four were quick to say that the Democratic Party should not nominate Clinton.

Their principal reasons for opposing the former first lady are threefold: They resent her slow retreat from her 2002 vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, they think she is "too polarizing," and they think that the centrist playbook that she and former President Clinton subscribe to undermines progressive causes.

Liz McGowen, who lives on a farm near Shepherdstown, W.Va., was aware that Clinton recently said that she would not vote for the Iraq War knowing what she knows now.

But McGowen said that she is "amazed" that it has taken her "so long" to come around.