Hillary Clinton: Warrior or peacemaker? CNN

Writing for CNN, Julian Zelizer argues that it's overly-simplistic to define Hillary Clinton as a hawk, based on her 2002 vote on the Iraq War. Arguing that the best way to understand a person's ideas is to study the people who influenced he(r), Zelizer proposes to study Richard Holbrooke, in order to understand Hillary.

At the heart of "The Diplomat" a new HBO movie series premiering with Richard Holbrooke and his tireless work trying to resolve the horrific 1995 conflict between Serbia and Bosnia is his belief in diplomacy before guns. Rather than sending in the military, then president President Clinton dispatched Holbrook to resolve a brutal war.

Facing a horrendous situation that inclted violent "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbs (the film has images of the conflict that are a powerful reminder of what was at stake), he undertook many days of intense shuttle diplomacy that ultimately produced the 1995 ceasefire completed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside of Dayton, Ohio.

Read this superb article about the explosive, larger-than-life Richard Holbrooke for clues about how Hillary Clinton will promote diplomacy over guns, argues Zelizner.

Al Franken Steps Up For Democrats

Franken Gets Serious About Flipping Senate to the Democrats Politico

Minnesota Senator Al Franken makes it clear that he will be joining Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker in a major push to return the Senate to Democrats in 2016. It might only last two years -- with 2018 putting Dems under enormous pressure, but how else will President Clinton get anything done, asks Franken.

. . . This year alone, Franken has spread his star status around, raising money for safe incumbent Patty Murray of Washington, choosing sides in contested primaries by supporting Tammy Duckworth in Illinois and Ted Strickland in Ohio, and clocking four events for Catherine Cortez Masto in the swing state of Nevada.

. . . Democrats are relying on Franken, Warren and Booker to be both show horses and workhorses: to remind voters that the Senate races may not draw the attention of Clinton’s presidential bid but are still critically important and to simultaneously raise gobs of money for Democratic candidates.