Hillary's Epiphany

Bashar Assad is not a reformer. Of course, everybody else in the world knew he was a bloodthirsty thug a long time ago. Maybe it's a good thing that she's not the one taking those 3 AM phone calls after all.

TAPPER: — You at one point seemed to have optimism that Assad was a reformer.

CLINTON: Well we had hoped so because there was a lot at stake, we wanted to see an agreement, for example, between Syria and Israel. That was something that people have been working on for 30 years. We heard what Assad said about what he wanted to do for reform. But when it came to it, in the Arab Spring and as people actually demanded some freedom and their rights, he responded, as we have seen, very violently.

But he’s not going to be able to sustain what is a unfortunately growing armed opposition apparently fueled and maybe led by defectors from his army. It’s probably too late for him to change course, but there needs to be a change at the top of that government and there needs to be an effort to engage in genuine dialogue and start on the path of reform.