Just for Fun, A Look at the Presidential Race

Hillary Clinton's campaign trip to Iowa this weekend has received a lot of media coverage. Like all of the presidential hopefuls, Clinton's position -- or lack thereof -- on Iraq has been the headline of most reports, but it was the senator's slightly unexpected pronouncement on another element of defense policy that caught my attention.

While reviewing a litany of various accomplishments from the Clinton 41 administration, Hillary Clinton stopped herself to note one policy development that she wished she could reverse: "don't ask don't tell."

Without using the words "Bill" or "my husband," Clinton praised his administration for creating budget surpluses, helping schools finance new buildings and improving medical care for veterans. Talking to the Democratic committee members, she said she has favored repeal of one Clinton era policy — the don't ask, don't tell policy applying to gay people in the military.

Thousands of patriotic Americans have been discharged and "that to me does not make sense," Clinton said, adding the United States should judge military personnel as its allies do: by "actions and behavior, not status."

Meanwhile, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who just this weekend launched his own presidential exploratory committee, seems intent to fully claim the hateful wing of his Republican party. Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney have all famously had a couple moments of tolerance and respect for GLBT folk, moments these Republicans may be regretting now that Huckabee's courting their party's socially conservative base with statements like this one from his website:

"While I respect people having a right to be different and even engage privately in conduct I find unbecoming or even abnormal, I oppose sexual orientation being afforded status as a protected class in the same manner as race, religion, or creed."