WASHINGTON — One of President Obama’s top political advisers is slapping back at Hillary Clinton for her harsh criticism of Obama’s foreign policy.
David Axelrod — who was Obama’s top strategist during his epic primary against Clinton in 2008 — weighed in after Clinton ridiculed an Obama White House mantra: “Don’t do stupid s—.”
“Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle,” Clinton told the Atlantic magazine in a withering critique.
Clinton’s broadside — which had DC whispering all week — was met with silence from the White House.
But on Tuesday morning, Axelrod shot back on Twitter:
It was an unmistakable reminder of the 2008 primary, when Clinton’s vote for the Iraq war resolution weighed on her campaign like an anchor, and Obama’s criticism of the war became a pivotal issue.
Axelrod served as a top White House adviser to Obama but now runs a political institute at the University of Chicago.
Later Tuesday, the leftist MoveOn organization released its own blistering statement in reaction to Clinton’s comments.
“Secretary Clinton, and any other person thinking about seeking the Democratic nomination in 2016, should think long and hard before embracing the same policies advocated by right-wing war hawks that got America into Iraq in the first place and helped set the stage for Iraq’s troubles today,” the group said.
The emergence of a public split between Obama and Clinton — who served as his top diplomat during the first term — could grow even more awkward this week on Martha’s Vineyard, where both are on vacation.
Obama and Clinton are both scheduled to attend the 80th birthday party Wednesday night of Ann Dibble Jordan, Politico reported.
She’s the wife of powerhouse Democrat and Bill Clinton pal Vernon Jordan and is also the cousin of Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.
The party is at the Farm Neck Golf Club, where Obama has been golfing on his vacation, which began Saturday.
Besides the surf and the weather (Obama took a swim Monday before issuing a brief statement on the chaotic politics in Baghdad), the two could take the chance to catch up on Obama’s Syria policy.
Clinton told the Atlantic: “The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad … left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled.”
Pressed that he should have armed the rebels, Obama said it was ‘horses—‘ that such a strategy would work.
Late last month, Obama ridiculed that line of argument at a White House meeting with senior lawmakers.
Pressed that he should have armed the rebels, Obama said it was “horses—” that such a strategy would work, the Daily Beast reported.
The administration feared weapons would fall into the hands of radicals it couldn’t control.
Also noteworthy in the Clinton interview was how she placed “ultimate responsibility” with Hamas for the fight in Gaza, and said unequivocally that Israel “did what it had to do.”
Obama, in comments last week, stressed the toll on Palestinians, and his administration has gritted its teeth at some of Israel’s blunt tactics.
“I think that Bibi will smile and nod to himself” when reading the article, former US Ambassador to Yemen Arthur Hughes told The Post, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Underlying the spat is an expectation that Clinton, a possible presidential candidate, needs to carve out some space from the unpopular Obama, even if differences weren’t so great when they worked together.
One former administration official said of Clinton and Obama: “I don’t see a lot of daylight between the two in terms of the essential positions we’ve laid out.”