While former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is still the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, veteran political analyst Dick Morris tells
Newsmax TV that she does have an obstacle in the Iran sanctions situation.
"A big problem is brewing for her in the general election over this Iran sanctions situation," Morris, who worked as a political adviser for former President Bill Clinton, told J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" Tuesday.
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Clinton spent part of her tenure in the State Department campaigning for
tougher sanctions on Iran over the Middle Eastern country's nuclear capabilities. In 2010, she traveled to several nations that neighbor Iran to garner support for the sanctions.
"In the past, Hillary has done this dance where she says she's in favor of sanctions in public and even claims credit for them and for their impact, but then in private sends her lobbyists up to Capitol Hill to try to kill them," Morris said.
"The last sanctions bills were passed over the State Department's opposition but with Hillary taking credit for their effectiveness," he said.
The Obama administration is in the middle of talks with Iran over limiting the enrichment of uranium to prevent the development of nuclear weapons.
The Republicans are working on a bill that would impose greater economic sanctions on Iran, but Obama vowed in his
State of the Union address that he will veto it, saying that sanctions would "guarantee that diplomacy fails."
"With Obama clashing with the Republicans over this issue, on a really high profile basis, [Clinton] can't sustain that dance anymore," Morris said. "She has to come down clearly on the side of trusting Iran in the negotiations and against the sanctions.
"That stripping away of that ambiguity is going to be very difficult for her because Obama doesn't have to run in '16," he added. "She does."
In the end, [Clinton] will have to face the results of these negotiations," Morris tells Newsmax.
"If ... they conclude with some sort of face-saving agreement that permits Iran to remain five minutes away from developing eight or 10 bombs without actually exploding one, everybody's going to think that's a fraud, everybody's going to attack it," he said.
"And Hillary will be forced to defend it because Obama smoked her out with this veto threat," he said.
"If Obama hadn't gone confrontational with Congress over this, Hillary could have skated, but Obama's doing this to her again and again by taking firm positions and fighting with the Republicans," he added.
"He's forcing his presidential nominee to take on popular positions."
Morris argues that its Obama's way of forcing "Hillary into a left-wing agenda," while she really "wants to preserve flexibility."
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