Hillary Clinton is getting tough.

In an apparent effort to make it look as though she is still significant in today's American political climate despite lagging poll numbers, Hillary Clinton in recent days has been dashing around the country making harsh statements about the Bush administration concerning the military and national security. Since Hillary is incapable of gaining any further support from the Far Left found only in the outer reaches of the Internet, she's now vying for the support of real Americans by painting herself as a hawk.

It started off with Hillary's fake outrage when she learned of a Pentagon report which stated that 74 troops in Iraq who have died during the course of the war may have lived had they been wearing more advanced body armor. Hillary huffed and puffed, calling the Bush administration "incompetent" and saying that the lack of armor was "unforgivable." So, Hillary wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee calling for an investigation into the lack of sufficient body armor.

In the blink of an eye, a hearing had been scheduled. There would be military officials to brief the Committee on the lack of body armor and to offer explanations.

But then--whoops!-- when it came time for the hearing, Hillary Kevlar was strangely absent. It turns out that she had more important matters for the day, like going to a luncheon also attended by Bush-hater Harry Belafonte. Her spokesman announced that she had a "long planned day of events," so she sent her very own "defense aide" instead. At the hearing, military experts who, unlike Hillary, possess a vast amount of knowledge in the area of body armor, said that improved body armor was in fact coming soon. Also, Colonel Thomas Spoehr, the official in charge of body armor supplies on the field, also explained that one "could outfit a soldier from head to toe in armor, and he would be completely useless... [w]e have to be sensitive to the weight burden we put on soldiers in that arduous environment over there." In less reasonable words: You could put a forty-inch thick, 80-pound plate of titanium alloy in front of a soldiers face and he could survive a head shot, but the weight and bulkiness would render the soldier useless.

But sure enough, even after the hearings that she demanded-then-dodged, Hillary still insists that not enough is happening. If she had been at the hearing she was absent from (instead of sending an aide), she may have learned that there was a significant amount of body armor on the way. She would also know that, according to Col. Spoehr, many soldiers would have to be limited in their body armor because it would effect their maneuverability. But to this, Hillary responds that "[m]any Marines and soldiers want it, so our job is to provide it." I think I'll leave that determination up to the one in charge, Col. Spoehr.

Along with feigning concern over body armor for the troops, Hillary has decided to take up the hawkish position on Iran. Seeing as it now seems that a war with Iran is all but inevitable, Hillary is attempting to make it look like the Bush administration was slacking off on the Iran situation while allowing the rogue nation to feverishly develop nuclear weapons.

In much the same way a child screams "I told you so!" to his parents, Hillary stated in a recent speech that President Bush had "downplayed" the threat of Iran. She was shocked that Bush chose to, in her words, "outsource the negotiations" with Iran.

It is true that in the past few years the President has left most of the diplomatic work with Iran to allies, predominately from Europe. And it is true that the diplomatic work has failed to stop Iran from abandoning its nation's nuclear ambitions. Obviously, Hillary thinks that if only "incompetent" Bush and his friends had shown up, Iran would have given up with the whole nuclear thing and started holding a higher respect for U.S. non-proliferation demands. After all, since Iran is renowned for having incredibly stable and reasonable leaders, surely Bush's charisma would have been sufficient enough to persuade Iran to make the right decisions.

Just one year ago, however, it doesn't seem her husband, Bill, would have agreed with Hillary's opposition to Bush's "outsourcing". In an interview with Charlie Rose in January, 2005, the impeached former President stated that "basically the Europeans' initiative to Iran to try to figure out a way to defuse the nuclear crisis is a good one" and even sharing that he thought that "President Bush has done, so far, the right thing by not taking the military option off the table, but not pushing it too much." Was that "downplaying" the threat?

In any case, while Hillary enjoys exploiting important national security matters for political gain, the Bush administration is actually working to bring Iran to the U.N. Security Council (not that that's important, but it certainly was to Hillary's pals in the Democrat Party back before the war in Iraq, so it's easy to understand). And if Iran refuses to change its course, then it will be Bush who will invade Iran not Hillary.

Hillary Clinton's endeavor to look tough, while cute, likely won't lead anywhere in the long run. There's a variety of reasons why Hillary may be attempting this quick political makeover. It might be because recent presidential polls for 2008 show her slipping far below Republican John McCain. Or it could be that militant leftist blogs and liberal interest groups are quickly losing interest in Hillary because she isn't liberal enough. Or it could be practically anything. Regardless of the reason, Hillary seems bent on creating a political image of strength and toughness, as if she expects the American people to abruptly disregard her relationship with perhaps the weakest American President in modern time, Bill Clinton. And that's something that will simply never happen.

--J.S.