OCCAM'S POLITICIAN. Thank God for Badler in the post below. I really don't know why people keep trying to chalk up Hillary's opinions to pandering and circumstances rather than admitting that she's simply not all that progressive, but it's long past time to face reality. Plenty of folks in the country may agree with her cautious hawkishness, and even more may believe an incrementalist, technocratic approach is the right way to use the presidency -- but there's really no reason to think either position of hers is insincere, and even less to invent new explanations for the ideological preferences she consistently demonstrates. She has a bunch of semi-hawkish advisors because she's semi-hawkish -- whether they made her that way or they all just agree is really neither here nor there. Meanwhile, I don't really know what Big Mike means when he suggests that HRC is desperate to retain the favor of the establishment types. She is the establishment, and whoever's currently in her favor gets a laminated card making them a member, too. --Ezra Klein
