From last night’s Special Report with Brit Hume:

–On Hillary and Iraq–

FRED BARNES: Well, like other Democrats, she did not say what the consequences would be in Iraq if we start pulling out American troops and she said she hopes to get it down to zero. She wants to put conditions on our aid to the Iraqi government in fact. And I think what she’s doing is just sort of setting herself up to do a full scale repudiation of the whole effort in Iraq.
MARA LIASSON: I think today she even said that she’d consider going further as voting for cutting off funds in the future, although she didn’t commit to that today. I think that if the Iraqi government doesn’t meet these benchmarks and she wants to withdraw funding for the troops or aid to the government that’s clearly going to be the next step. It puts almost all of the Democratic candidates more or less on the same page.
MORT KONDRACKE: Hillary Clinton said that she’s not for a deadline now, she wants a phased withdrawal. She says we still have strategic interests in Iraq, we do have to fight al Qaeda. We do have fight the insurgency. We do have to deal with Iranian influence and stuff like that. I don’t know where she wants to redeploy the troops to exactly and how fast the phasing goes. And she sort of covered this move to the left, and I agree it was a move to the left in so far as she wants to condition any aid to the Iraqi government on meeting these various benchmarks and in fact cut off aid to the Iraqis . . .

–On McCain and the Christian Right–

BARNES: I think McCain got a little too tricky [on the ay marriage issue], by saying well, “I think it’s a state issue and not a federal issue” and he voted against the federal marriage amendment. This is a very important amendment to social conservatives and the truth is, I think McCain, while he has broadened his contacts with [Christian Conservatives], I think he’s being completely outstripped by Mitt Romney in appealing to these social conservatives. Romney’s for that amendment and it makes a big difference.
BARNES: I think he’s in a tough spot [on the federal marriage amendment], but it helps him with social conservatives if he changed his position. It’s as simple as that.
KONDRACKE: Yeah, but it would hurt him among moderate general election voters . . .
BARNES: He’s got to win the nomination first.