Hillary reveals little in Sunday talk shows

Washington: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on all five talk shows on Sunday morning and demonstrated a particularly senatorial skill: the art of the filibuster.

Asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos whether she would withdraw all US troops from Iraq during a first term as president, Clinton gave a simple answer: She did not know.

But she used more than 225 words to say so. "You know, I'm not going to get into hypotheticals and make pledges, because I don't know what I'm going to inherit, George. I don't know and neither do any of us know what will be the situation in the region. How much more aggressive will Iran have become?" Clinton said.

"What will be happening in the Middle East? How much more of an influence will the chaos in Iraq have in terms of what's going on in the greater region? Will we have pushed Al Qaida in Iraq out of their strongholds with our new partnership with some of the tribal shaikhs or will they have regrouped and retrenched?"

She continued: "I don't know, and I think it's not appropriate to be speculating. I can tell you my general principles and my goal. I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to do so carefully, responsibly, with the withdrawal of our troops, also, with the withdrawal of a lot of our civilian employees, the contractors who are there, and the Iraqis who have sided with us.

"We have a huge humanitarian refugee crisis on our hands. We have millions of Iraqis who have been displaced, some internally, some into other countries.

"The problems we're going to face because of the failed policies and the poor decision-making of this administration are rather extraordinary and difficult, and I don't want to speculate about how we're going to be approaching it until I actually have the facts in my hand and the authority to be able to make some decisions."

Media blitz

Clinton did two hours of interviews by remote from a furnished barn in her back yard in Chappaqua, New York, part of an aggressive media blitz in the week after she offered up her plan for universal health-care coverage.

Her campaign expressed pride that she had driven the news agenda, forcing even President George W. Bush to talk about health insurance.

Her trip through the Sunday gantlet was designed to solidify the impression that Clinton is strong, indomitable and all but inevitable as the Democratic nominee and next president.

Clinton showed her lighter side, laughing uproariously when asked by Fox News' Chris Wallace why she and her husband have such a "hyperpartisan view of politics".

"Well, Chris, if you had walked even a day in our shoes over the last 15 years, I'm sure you'd understand," Clinton said.

Her answer drew swift condemnation from the Republican National Committee, which issued a statement saying that "apparently Hillary Clinton believes the serious issues facing our nation are a laughing matter".

Clinton drew other questions - about her former donor Norman Hsu.

Above all, though, in a morning of appearances that yielded virtually no news, Clinton illustrated her ability to talk. And talk. And talk.