Hillary booed for Iraq stance

New Delhi: Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton was booed at a conference on Wednesday for blaming failure in Iraq on the Iraqi government.

Some members of the audience at a conference of a liberal activist group called ‘Take Back America’ were dissatisfied with Hillary's remarks on Iraq.

They were also unhappy with the Senator asking for more US troops to be sent to Iraq. The 'Take Back America' group had also protested Hillary's stand on Iraq in 2006.

Clinton had been doing well with the crowd, slamming President Bush in unusually harsh terms for a full 23 minutes before treading into the political danger zone of Iraq.

"The American military has succeeded," Clinton said, before she triggered jeers and competing cheers from supporters by adding, "It is the Iraqi government which has failed to make the tough decisions."

She also said, “"I love coming here every year. I see the signs - 'Lead us out of Iraq now.' That is what we are trying to do.” But the crowd booed her again.

A year ago, Clinton set off the crowd by saying she opposed setting a "date certain" to bring troops home.

Since then, she's moved left, voting last month with just 13 other senators to cut funding for the war.

Her campaign accentuated the positive. "We're gratified that she came in to applause, left to applause and was well-received," said spokesman Blake Zeff.

Clinton did best while bashing Bush as "out of touch with reality."

She blamed his administration for a "catastrophic" Iraq war, a "shredded" Constitution, a woeful response to Hurricane Katrina and case after case of putting "ideology before science."

"It is honestly hard to believe that one of these things could happen in America, but all of them have," Clinton said. "It is a stunning record of secrecy and corruption, of cronyism run amok."

Clinton finished third in a straw poll by Politico.com of the event, picked by 17 per cent of conference-goers, compared with 29 per cent who liked Barack Obama and 26 per cent who favored John Edwards.

A retired steelworker and Edwards backer who booed Clinton said she was just too cautious. "She's always taken the safe track," said Steve Skvara of Indiana.

(With agency inputs)