For all I know, Robert Novak just made this up but assuming he didn't, Hillary Clinton is a lot more insightful than your average political prognosticator in the press: "In private conversations, Clinton has expressed the view that Obama's emphasis on Iraq -- her Senate vote for it, his against it -- defeated her."
Of course it did and even more than that it was her vote for the war, and her next few years of war-related behavior, that made Obama's candidacy conceivable.
DoD photo by Spc. Richard Del Vecchio, U.S. Army
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/07/the-war/49397/
