{UAH} Lincoln Chafee: Hillary 'should not be president' - Ben Schreckinger - POLITICO

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/lincoln-chafee-2016-president-exploratory-committee-116810.html?hp=c3_3

Lincoln Chafee: Hillary 'should not be president' - Ben Schreckinger

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The former Rhode Island governor and senator is exploring a 2016 presidential run as Democrat.

By Ben Schreckinger

4/9/15 12:07 PM EDT

Lincoln Chafee announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Thursday morning and became the first member of the Democratic field to criticize Hillary Clinton directly.

"I would argue that anybody who voted for the Iraq War should not be president, and certainly anybody who voted for the Iraq War should not lead the Democratic Party into an election," the former Rhode Island governor and senator — who only became a Democrat in 2013 — told POLITICO.

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Chafee said his differences with Clinton are primarily related to foreign policy, and he condemned the former senator and former secretary of state for what he called her "top-down American muscular approach."

Chafee was the only Republican senator to vote against authorizing the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He lost a reelection bid to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006, and was elected governor of Rhode Island as an independent in 2010. At the time he became a Democrat in 2013, he had been planning to seek a second term as governor but later decided not to run. He left office in January.

He said he does not expect to have significant differences with Clinton on domestic issues and singled out environmental stewardship as a point on which they agree.

Other candidates have taken indirect swipes at Clinton, considered the front-runner in the early Democratic field, and at her husband. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley decried the politics of "triangulation" associated with the Clintons and said the presidency "is not some crown to be passed between two families." In Chicago on Wednesday night, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb said the U.S. has lacked strategic direction since 1993, condemned the invasion of Iraq and criticized the U.S.-led 2011 intervention in Libya, but also did not single out the Clintons by name.

Chafee said he did not have a firm timeline for deciding whether to formally enter the race. "I certainly want to be involved all through 2015 and at some point make a decision to make it official," he said. He does not yet have plans to travel to Iowa or New Hampshire but said he plans to begin reaching out to local Democratic committees in those states.

His exploratory committee does not have any paid staffers. "It's a volunteer effort at this stage," he said.

Lincoln Chafee: Hillary 'should not be president' - Ben Schreckinger - POLITICO
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/lincoln-chafee-2016-president-exploratory-committee-116810.html?hp=c3_3‎

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