John Edwards says he was wrong on Iraq. Barack Obama says he was right from the start. So should Hillary Clinton apologize for her vote – along with Edwards’ – to authorize the war? Does she have to say now that she made a mistake then?

She is resisting. She says the mistake was Bush’s. And she pivots to talk about what she would do now. In other words, let’s forget the stupid things I did then and talk about the smart things I’ll do now.

Clearly, the politics are different for Clinton and Edwards. He is making a hard play for antiwar Democrats. She thinks she can be more mainstream. She may also fear that a female candidate can’t afford to look weak.

But experience shows that – once a politician is being hounded about whether to call a mistake a mistake – he or she eventually has to give in.

What we probably will see is classic Clintonian parsing, courtesy of the “full-time campaign strategist” she calls Bill. Something along the lines of “I didn’t inhale,” “mend it, don’t end it” (re affirmative action) and “it depends on what the definition of is is.” (But probably not something like: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”)

Some suggestions:

• “The mistake now would be to harp on what’s done. Let’s talk about what we must do to get out. And I have a plan….”

• “If I was mistaken, most of the Senate was mistaken, the intelligence community was mistaken, the military was mistaken and a lot of the American people were mistaken. But we cannot afford to make mistakes now….”

• “I’m not ging to apologize. I did what I thought was right. I’m not going to second-guess just to play politics. And as President I’ll always do what I think is right….”

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