Barack Obama now says he would be open to “refine” his policies about a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq after meeting with US military commanders in Iraq later this month. This statement follows three different versions of his Iraq policy floated by Obama’s advisers and surrogates over the past two days.
As Rick Klein of ABC News puts it:
There will be only one relevant question now out of Obama’s trip now: Do you stand by your plan? Obama is unlikely to give a direct, yes-or-no answer — and that’s where Sen. John McCain and his allies can and will pounce.
That is probably correct, as noted here on Tuesday:
Accordingly, following his planned trip to Iraq, I would not be surprised if, instead of an outright shift on Iraq, Obama ends up with a position not unlike that he now has regarding unconditional, direct diplomacy with Iran, i.e., a somewhat internally contradictory Rube Goldberg contraption, from which he will pull pieces for whichever audience is facing at the moment.
HotAir’s Allahpundit is cutting Obama slack because he believes Obama is moving in the right direction. That is far from clear.  Arguably, Obama will be doing the exact opposite of “refining” his policy on Iraq. Instead, he will be further obfuscating his position on Iraq and raising the issue of whether he has a position on Iraq – or whether he is simply trying to remain enough of a “blank screen” to cobble together an electoral majority.ÂÂ
Allahpundit also suggests that if Obama shifts for cynical political reasons, those same reasons will continue to steer him right. That is also far from clear. Allah himself notes that the polling numbers on Iraq are not good in some respects.* Moreover, if we believe that, we would also believe that Obama is fully committed to cutting taxes for the middle class, despite having voted this year to raise taxes on people making as little as $31,850 annually. Should Iraq suffer any sort of setback under an Obama administration, there is no guarantee that Obama would not shove the Iraqis and our national security interests under the same bus as Samantha Power — the Obama adviser who got the boot shortly after suggesting that Obama had some wiggle room on Iraq.
* I have a running friendly dispute with Allah over the way his general pessimism causes him to interpret poll data out of context. In this case, Allah has difficulty figuring out why Obama would be shifting his position now, based on the most recent poll on Iraq. First, I would suggest that the 3% shift in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll Allah notes is within the poll’s margin of error. Second, I would note that — to take one example — the most recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll shows that the numbers for withdrawing from Iraq in any given timeframe have not changed significantly in the past year. One might ask: “If 43% wanted to withdraw within a year in June 2007, why haven’t they moved into the ‘withdraw right away’ column in June 2008? ” It cannot be explained by the 10% swing in people who think we are making progress in the past year. Thus, the answer is that the answers to poll questions cannot be read as literally as people like Allah read them.
You have to admire Senator Obama’s adoption of the Kerryesque “I was for withdrawal before I was against it”. He shows precisely the same cowardice of his lack of conviction.
I wonder if he has a personal trainer helping him stay so limber?
Refine all he wants he can’t posit victory. He’s stunted like that.
This puts Town Hall debates in the “not gonna happen” column.
“Let me be as clear as I can be: I tend to end this war,” he said. “I have seen no information that contradicts the notion that we can bring out troops out safely at a pace of one to two brigades per month,” with all out within 16 months. “This is the same position that I had four months ago.”
Simple calculus, actually: what are the useful idiots going to do, vote for McCain? Obama can fuck them six ways to Sunday, because at the end of the day, all they care about is getting power. That’s all they’ve ever cared about. The sad part is, they care about it so much that they don’t even worry about never being able to put it to the kind of use they’re always on about.
Obama knows this. He played them just as Hillary would have.
Not very sporting, this Baracky.
You know being a Community Organizer™ is hard work.
When a dem starts a statement with “Let me be perfectly clear” in a situation where he’s been called out, he just ends up looking like Rich Little doing Tricky Dicky on The Copycats
Spin faster oh holy O!:
Obama: Mental distress can’t justify late abortion
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says “mental distress” should not qualify as a justification for late-term abortions, a key distinction not embraced by many supporters of abortion rights.
In an interview this week with “Relevant,” a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain “a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother.”
Obama then added: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.”
Hey backoff the O!
After all he did promise change, we just didn’t realize it meant every time he stood in front of microphone or changed locations.
See for real I thought the moving to the center for the general thing meant a change of emphasis… like talking more about the economy than bailing on Iraq or whatever. Or coming up with some happy centristy ideas you hadn’t talked about before. This isn’t that. Baracky’s just a liar is all.
“Baracky’s just a liar is all.”
You just don’t get “change” ?
LATimes 1.5 hrs ago
He keeps saying he’s going to “listen to the commanders” but he has snubbed going to Iraq or meeting with Petraeus.
If I wasn’t so busy painting a room, I’d be working faster on a photoshop with Barry as the thing with two heads…
It’s just disappointing is all, dre. I thought he was different.
Baracky’s just a liar is all.
The Greenwaldians have realized this and support him anyway. The Olbyites deny it.
Rick Ballard is correct. His innate cowardice is one of the most important (not to mention repugnant) flaws.
Karl, several folks I know who are long-time AllahP fans going back to his glorious original blog have long since tuned him out on Iraq. He’s a slave to opinion surveys, which have two problems 1) they’re typically not well done in terms of the options offered, as are most polls on any issue with much national political resonance 2) they don’t matter anyway, as one doesn’t run a war based on polling (well, if you’re serious, not some sort of Clinton assclown pretend-president).
In this case, to take solace from Obama’s latest comical shift reveals a real problem with reality. Obama and his ilk are ignorant and irresponsible – tactical gyrations don’t have anything to do with acquiring the guts, brains, and gravitas to handle war like a grown-up. That’s the part of AllahP’s post today that I find most unimpressive. The rhetoric alone from the Dem side has had the potential to do real damage to the war effort (just as the administration’s inept body language and other hints about a desire to leave pronto surely made the rough middle innings of ’05/’06 worse than they had to be) by negatively affecting the expectations of the players in Iraq.
Our heft and the absolute need to protect vital interests just about ensure an acceptable outcome of some kind over there, but stupid talk can and does cost lives and treasure by delaying our inexorable victory.
You had me til inexorable. The media will go Katrina on Iraq given something, anything even halfway shocking enough to justify it. Remember how they histrionically declared Basra a fiasco. Baracky has to choose his words carefully so he doesn’t forestall a possible and glorious media Tet as he struggles to just kind of articulate a policy that’s not just batshit stupid out of touch with reality.
Obama is a panderer but he’s not stupid. He now realizes that the war in Iraq has been won and it is foolish to argue otherwise. The true believers like Kos and Greenwald will be shocked and outraged but they and their puppets have nowhere else to go. This speaks to their naivite. Greenwald will be the last American to realize that the opposition to Bush’s position on FISA was politics.
This doesn’t make Obama trustworthy. It just means he’s not as brain dead as Markos, Greenwald, Andrew, Kevin and Josh. And all the rest of those narcissistic anti-liberation creeps.
As to the effect of this on the election, given that the MSM will do everything in their power to convince the public that “it” wasn’t worth it the GOp still needs to organize ten thousand day long rock concerts on election day.
And it goes without saying that few of those who work in the MSM understand that “it” is the removal of a terrorist supporting madman who today would be pursuing nuclear weapons were he still in power; the establishment of a democracy in the middle east; and the devastation and defeat of al Qaeda.
Yeah well maybe he’s not stupid but he can’t say “win,” which is what Americans do with respect to war. He has to say “end,” so he sounds retarded anyway.
“I have always been myself, even when I was ill. Only now I seem myself. That’s the important thing. I have remembered how to seem.”
Obama’s the One
He reminds me of this guy a lot.
“#Comment by happyfeet on 7/3 @ 6:47 pm #
He reminds me of this guy a lot.”
I denounce your weaselism.
That would be meerkatism.
BECAUSE OF THE PEDANTICNESS!
Sorry “they” all look alike.
I also think Allah is giving Obama way too much credit. I know AP is a slave to polls, but he might have missed the ones that came out recently which showed that a majority of people in several battle ground states support sticking it out in Iraq. I can not remember where I saw this poll, but I think it was Quinnipiac. But if Obama did not think he needed to do this, he wouldn’t do it.
But I don’t doubt for one minute that he will switch right back if he thinks it works for him. Say what you will about McCain, you do not have to wonder if he will surrender or not. You know he won’t.
I have this vision of the netroots reenacting their own “last helicopter out of Saigon” photo at Denver once they’ve truly realized that Obama has not only tossed them under the bus, but he’s also backing over them. The mental picture of hundreds of disillusioned moonbats, clustered atop the Pepsi Center and frantically grabbing on to the skids of departing helicopters, is almost too delicious to contemplate…..
I like how the MSM is flippin’ with the O!. NYT doing progress in Iraq and M. Steyn Euro death wish stories.
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that Afghanistan, which used to be the “right” war (according to all the Democrat presidential hopefuls back during primary season) is increasingly being categorized as “more dangerous and violent” with a “resurgent and stronger” Taliban (even though we kick their asses any time they congregate in a group larger than a squad and stay long enough to get spotted), and that the news of a 30-day delay in bringing 24 MEU home is causing the MSM to raise their collective voices in dismay? Perhaps the leftards, finally realizing that we just might actually achieve our objectives in Iraq, are scrambling to find a different quagmire that they can conveniently surrender.
Oh, just wait. On January 21, 2009, we will suddenly be TRIUMPHING in Iraq! There will be ticker-tape VICTORY parades! President Obama will approve plans for a 911-foot colossus of HIMSELF trampling on the neck if International Terrorism. The media will be analyzing his Churchillian leadership, Eisenhoweresque grasp of strategy, and his Teddy Rooseveltian personal courage in personally facing hostile terrorist fighters with only a couple of oceans and continents between him and the foe.
Terrye,
Allah did not miss that Quinnipiac poll, but it was — cause for pessimism beacuse McCain was still losing despite thoe numbers you mention.
I still think he’s “the man,” but polling seems to trigger his pessimistic side.
Where did thor go exactly? Did i miss something? This thread needs some thor I think. It’s entirely too consensusy.
Motion sickness from watching O! spin 360’s in the Hope & Change Express?
Karl:
Yes, well polls are not always right. It just depends and it seems to me that even if you do look at polls it is interesting to note that no one seems to make it to 50% and stay there. There are still a lot of undecideds. McCain was polling ahead of Obama until the Democratic bloodbath was over {sorta} and now there has been increased support for Obama, but his average at RCP is less than 6% lead now. I would rather see McCain ahead, but considering everything a small lead like that is not good for Obama right now. If it were, I doubt we would see all this tap dancing. One thing is for sure, come November we will find out.
From the deluded Dept.: Dems lose Pres. Dems “lose” congress
Iowahawk(as usual) has found Obama’s definitive statement, which clarifies everything.
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/
Dratted html.
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2008/07/a-clarification.html
Obama’s REAL father found!
It’s hard out here for a community organizer.
– Markos has already thrown him under the back of the bus, but O! won’t even notice because the Kos bus isn’t magic, its a matchbox size WeenerBus. (I think Kos rents it from Oscar Meyers)
– So is Hampsher-teh-Harpy, who is busily ripping him apart with her usual wall-o-words, which unfortunately, because she gags, or bans, anyone that could make any real difference, no one of importance ever sees.
– We should be seeing the results of the Iraq-flip heard found the world in the next few hours, everyone be sure to wear your hip waders and snorkel masks.
– Thus the ever dependable nutroot loons may be already gathering on the Pepsi Center roof.
MNF-I-REMF
Terry Gain
MarkJ
Trimegistus
Ain’t seen y’all around here before, so I’ll just say Welcome to P-Dub, and don’t step in the nishi.
Where did thor go exactly? Did i miss something? This thread needs some thor I think. It’s entirely too consensusy.
thor truly is the Gumout Fuel Injector and Carburaetor Cleaner for so many posts. Or maybe Snuggle
[…] Karl and Allah note, we’ve got […]
I think we let the trolls off for the weekend, Al. Don’t worry, they’ll be back.
Tanned, rested, and ready.
Obama’s REAL father found!
Heh. I wonder if Criswell predicted global warming? Might have to check that out.
How can I still do my schtick after this? I mean this guy is now officially running as bush.