At this point, with the Iowa caucuses less than a month away, there is little point in going through the policy positions of every Democratic presidential candidate. There is hardly any reason to even discuss John Edwards, who is polling a distant third. It has come down to two options: Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

As he manages to mention at every debate, Obama opposed the war from the beginning. Of course, he didn't have to actually cast a vote in the Senate in 2002, since he was not yet a Senator. However, there is no reason to assume that his vote would have been at all out of step with his vocal anti-war rhetoric had he had the opportunity. The significance of this should not be overlooked, as it indicates both foresight and clear-headed conviction.

Clinton, meanwhile, like Sen. Joseph Biden, Sen. Chris Dodd and John Edwards, voted to grant the President the authority to send us to war in 2002, though is now, as is the entirety of the field, opposed to the continuing conflict in Iraq. However, unlike Edwards, Clinton stands by her vote, even knowing what she knows today. While Edwards has publicly admitted his vote was in error and based on poor intelligence, Clinton maintains that, while Congress gave the president authorization to go to war, the decision to invade, and all the subsequent blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the president.
This inability to accept even the smallest responsibility for misguided actions or admit even the most understandable of mistakes seems just a bit reminiscent of our current disastrous administration and does not bode well for future issues the next president will undoubtedly face.

With regards to the future of the war, these two candidates do not differ a great deal, which may be why the Clinton camp has resorted to attacking Obama on kindergarten essays and teenage indiscretions. They both oppose increasing troop levels and advocate for a carefully phased withdrawal. Given these similarities, we must, in this case, look to the candidate's past. Clearly, on this issue, the win goes to Obama, simply because he got it right and Clinton isn't willing to admit she got it wrong even knowing everything she knows now, which is basically that she got it wrong.