President Bush should clean up the mess he made in Iraq and bring American troops home before he leaves the White House in 2009, Sen. Hillary Clinton said yesterday.
Clinton fired her rhetoric-raising broadside at Bush and the Iraq war on her first swing through Iowa as a presidential hopeful, painting herself as tough, warm and presidential all at the same time.

"The President has said this is going to be left to his successor," she said at a rally in Davenport. "I think it's the height of irresponsibility, and I really resent it.

"This was his decision to go to war; he went with an ill-conceived plan, an incompetently executed strategy, and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office," the former First Lady said.

White House spokesman Rob Saliterman criticized Clinton (D-N.Y.) for "a partisan attack that sends the wrong message to our troops and the Iraqi people."

One questioner challenged Clinton to explain her vote in late 2002 to authorize the war. She said Congress was "misled" at the time by the President.

"He took the authority that I and others gave him, and he misused it," she said. "And I regret that deeply. And if we had known then what we know now, there never would have been a vote, and I never would have voted to give this President that authority."

Dawn Trettin, 33, and her son Ramon Briones, 18, who has joined the Army, said they liked what they heard from Clinton. Trettin, though, teared up when someone in the crowd told her son not to go to Iraq.

"I don't want to just pull out and leave it in chaos," she said, though she was waiting to make up her mind on whom to vote for next year.

Her son, who said he liked Clinton's depth, was ready to commit after hearing her pitch. "I liked her," he said. "I would vote for her."

Clinton is leading her Democratic rivals in national polls, but she is not the front-runner in Iowa. If Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus was held now, she would lose to 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards. She also trails former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in state polls.

She completed a two-day swing through the state last night in a bid to close the gap and tried to erase the perception among many Iowans that she can't win, talking to them in small groups in living rooms and by the thousands in large halls.

The reception was strong, and Camp Clinton liked what it saw.

"We are thrilled with the weekend," said Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson.

Clinton also focused on middle-class issues like making college more affordable and obtaining universal health care coverage.

She promised to try to at least get universal coverage for kids during her next two years in the Senate.

Today, she's picking up the war theme theme again in Texas, attending the dedication of Brooke Army Medical Center's $50 million Center for the Intrepid. The 60,000-square-foot physical rehabilitation center is for veterans injured in the war.