Welcome to Cato Daily Podcast, this is Anastasia Yuglova on Thursday, May 3rd.

In Reason magazine's online edition, Cato's Director of Foreign Policy Studies, Christopher

Preble, takes a stab at explaining Senator Clinton's peculiar foreign policy decisions.

In today's interview, the subject of discussion with Chris is just that, Senator Clinton

and the war in Iraq.

What I gathered from your article is that you think the explanation for Senator Clinton's

dissent in the polls recently comes down to the single issue question of Iraq.

Well I certainly think it's a big issue. Obviously for most Democrats the

Iraq war is a very important issue it is for most Americans and overwhelmingly

Democrats are opposed to the war they want to bring it to an end they want a

timetable for withdrawal all of those things and

Senator Clinton's support for the war resolution back in October 2002 has not sat very well

with the base of her party. Not surprisingly. In her defense,

quite a number of other Democrats voted for the war as well, including some people who

were also running for president like Joe Biden. But she has been in this difficult

position of trying to differentiate herself from Senator Obama,

who was not in a position to cast a vote in October of 2002.

So he has the advantage of being able to say, I was always opposed to the war even though he didn't

have to cast a vote and she has to explain or at least try to explain why she

voted the way she did back in October 2002.

Where do Americans stand at the present moment on the Iraq issue?

I mean by the numbers, how many support a pullout and how many still support our military operations there?

...