Iraq War history ensares both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush

In January 2007, shortly after entering the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton traveled to Iowa, where one of the first questions she faced was about her vote to authorize the war in Iraq.

"If we had known then what we know now, there never would have been a vote," Clinton said, "and I never would have voted to give (President George W. Bush) that authority."

Clinton had been saying that since 2004. As she ramped up her campaign, she said it more and more. "If I had known then what I know now, I never would have voted to give the president authority," Clinton said at a Democratic debate in June 2007. "Obviously, if I had known then what I know now about what the president would do with the authority that was given him, I would not have voted the way that I did," she said on "Meet the Press" in September 2007.

It didn't work. Democrats, and some in the press, demanded more. They wanted Clinton to acknowledge that she had made a grievous error that went far beyond simply believing intelligence that turned out to be false. They wanted Clinton to say she had made a huge mistake and deeply regretted her actions. They wanted her to grovel.

"She uttered the most irritating and disingenuous nine words in politics: 'If we had known then what we know now,'" wrote New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd of Clinton during that 2007 Iowa visit. "(Democratic Sen.) Jim Webb knew. Barack Obama knew. Even I knew, for Pete's sake. The administration's trickery was clear in real time." Dowd's conclusion, and that of many on the left, was that Clinton didn't have the guts to stand up to a popular president.

Still, Clinton resisted a full-scale confession. She ended up paying a heavy price, losing the nomination to Obama, who had not been in Congress at the time and had the luxury of saying he opposed the Iraq War all along.

In recent days, Jeb Bush has struggled to answer the if-I-knew-then-what-I-know-now question about Iraq. Bush stumbled through three or four tries before finally saying that if he had known what would happen, "I would not have gone into Iraq."

That should be enough. Unlike Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush did not vote to authorize the war. Unlike Clinton, he was not privy to the secret intelligence used to justify invading Iraq. Unlike Clinton, he did not give a speech from the Senate floor in support of authorization.

In other words, Bush's I-would-not-have-gone-into-Iraq answer immediately transformed the debate into a partisan one. Conservatives who criticized Jeb's earlier flubbed answers will likely say he's done enough. The Left will keep pressing for more - just like they pressed Clinton. But of course, Jeb has no Iraq vote to regret.

Besides, in the end it seems unlikely the public is interested in a full replay of the 2002-2003 Iraq War debate. Bush made a common sense statement. That's probably enough for most voters.