TOEING THE LINE – AT 7:45 A.M. ET:  Looks like Hillary Clinton is back toeing the Obama line on foreign policy.  She's probably guarding against a challenge in 2016 from her party's powerful left wing.  From The Hill: 

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that military force is a necessary part of the “long-term struggle” between the U.S. and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL), according to a report.

Clinton said at an event in Ottawa that because ISIS’s mission is “expansionary” in nature — and because the group seems interested in embedding militants in the countries it opposes — she supports military action.

The former senator and top diplomat and likely 2016 presidential candidate also took issue with ISIS’s preferred name, the Islamic State.

"Whether you call them ISIS or ISIL, I refuse to call them the Islamic State, because they are neither Islamic nor a state," Clinton said, echoing comments that President Obama has made about the group.

Hmm.  They seem pretty similar in Islamic values to some countries we know.  And they're actually holding and governing territory. 

Clinton said in her recent memoir that she had advocated for the U.S. to arm rebels in Syria in the early days of the country’s civil war, but that the president ultimately disagreed. Some have argued that aiding moderate rebels could have made it harder for ISIS gain such a foothold in Syria.

COMMENT:  Clinton is now proceeding with more care.  She doesn't need Obama against her if she goes for the nomination in 2016.

October 7,  2014