Clinton's Foreign Policy Balancing Act

"All I can say is that Senator Obama has been a strong and consistent opponent of this war from the start because he believed it would mire us in an endless civil war and strengthen al-Qaeda," said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama. "That judgment and willingness to challenge the conventional thinking of Washington is an important quality in the next president."

Nonetheless, in an election year in which Iraq may well be the defining issue, Clinton remains the clear front-runner nationally. She is running even with Obama and former senator John Edwards (N.C.) in Iowa, arguably the most antiwar early-voting state.

Clinton advisers say they see her rising on parallel tracks: among liberals who believe her when she says she would end the war, and among centrists who believe she is "tough enough" to defend the country. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed Clinton ahead among Iowa voters on four key attributes: her ability to handle the situation in Iraq, strength as a leader, experience to be president and having the best chance to win in November.

Advisers to Clinton believe that her recent foreign policy moves have only made her more competitive, and they point to substantive steps she has taken, including introducing legislation requiring the Pentagon to report on its planning, co-sponsoring legislation to deauthorize the war and challenging Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman to explain whether the Pentagon had a strategy to withdraw troops.

Perhaps most impressed by Clinton's ability to balance running in a Democratic primary and looking ahead to competing against a Republican are Republicans themselves.

"I think primary politics has its own magnet, and if you allow that magnet to pull you too hard and too far it can certainly put you in a bad position if you do get the nomination," Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said in an interview last week, shortly after the back-and-forth between Clinton, with whom he serves on the Armed Services Committee, and Obama over nuclear force.

"I think Senator Clinton, for the second time, seized on statements [by Obama] that probably would not play well in the general election," said Graham, who supports Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president.

William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, sounded more effusive. "Obama," he said, "is becoming the antiwar candidate, and Hillary Clinton is becoming the responsible Democrat who could become commander in chief in a post-9/11 world."