Democrats have been waiting for somebody to take a stand on the Iraq war and now — finally — someone has. Hillary Clinton met with the editorial board of the Daily News yesterday and clarified her at times less-than-tactile position on the increasingly disastrous conflict in the Middle East.

As you can see from the photo that accompanies the article, Hillary has firmly mastered the hand gesture that signifies, "Here, inside this space between my hands, that's where the truth is." One can imagine her and Bill workshopping that one deep into the night — "Okay, honey. Yeah, that's about it — put those little paws about six inches apart. Now make the Truth Face. Ya got it! Time to watch Cheers."

In meeting with the editorial board, Hillary served up a piping-hot plate of The Way It Is.

"I believe that if President Bush woke up tomorrow and said that he would substitute Jim Baker or Colin Powell or Brent Scowcroft or somebody who actually knows how to do things in the real world for [Donald] Rumsfeld, I think the entire world would say 'OK, you've got another chance, we want to listen to you again.'"

She took the words right out of the world's mouth. All those pro–Jim Baker demonstrators teeming through the streets of Cairo and Paris and Beijing — finally, they have a voice. The Scowcroft wing of the German Green Party, they might get a little something out of this too. When nuanced realism replaces blinkered stay-the-course-ism, everybody maybe sorta wins. Hillary's got the whole world in her hands.

Hil: We've Got 90 Days [NYDN]
Sen. Hillary Clinton: Where I Stand on Iraq [NYDN]