From my column today:

Look out: Hillary Clinton is pulling the armor cloak from her rhetorical closet again. As long as she pairs it with a skirt, Italian designer Donatella Versace approves. But for any leading presidential candidate with a shred of integrity, this political wardrobe malfunction goes in the “fashion don’t” column.

In her latest campaign video, Hillary attacks the Bush administration for sending soldiers off to battle unprotected: “Promises just aren’t enough anymore. After almost four years, longer than we were in WWII, our troops still don’t have all the body armor and armored vehicles and other equipment they need. It’s a disgrace.”

…The Democrats’ latest talking point involves a reported shortage of armored Humvees in Iraq. The armchair generals of The New York Times editorial board waxed indignantly about the story last week — lambasting the “Army, the National Guard and the Marine Corps” for being “caught constantly behind the curve” on armor upgrades. The Times’ editorial titled their anti-Bush tirade, “Not supporting the troops.” The meme has penetrated from Hillary and Ted Kennedy down to every last, lowest-level Democratic strategist looking to burnish pro-military credibility….

I reprinted some of the responses from troops first published here, and also
added the observations of milblogger T.F. Boggs:

T.F. Boggs, a sergeant in the Army Reserves who recently returned from his second deployment to Iraq, summed it up: “We have come so far since the early days of the war that the armor issue is a joke. Only those who don’t have a clue about the reality of the war in Iraq make it an issue.”

Put another way: The empress has no clothes.