Now This Is Getting Ridiculous

During the campaign, all three leading Democratic candidates were asked if they could guarantee all troops out of Iraq by 2013 and they said no. I was bitterly disappointed and flirted with Bill Richardson's campaign when he took a stand over no residual forces. Ultimately, Obama won the nomination, and he was completely consistent over and over that we have to be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. I'm almost satisfied with that, though I'd like to know what he means by "getting out" - whether than means all troops instead of just combat troops, and all contractors besides.

But I agree with Greg Sargent. Obama did NOT make any substantive difference in his Iraq policy today.

All Obama is doing here is defusing the GOP argument that he'd withdraw recklessly and preserving flexibility for himself as commander in chief. These journalistic errors are matters of nuance. But nuance is hugely important here.

Will Obama in fact change his withdrawal policy at any point? I have no idea. Anything is possible. But he certainly didn't say anything today that's even remotely as suggestive or ominous as this reporting makes it seem.

The Village wants to apply that unprincipled flip-flopper label very badly. I agree that Obama could be smarter about how he talks about Iraq, and draw the contrast with McCain a little stronger. But really, he's not saying anything different than he did during the campaign. Further, if national Democrats actually stood up and presented a united front and pushed back against this "we're winning" nonsense it'd be easier for all candidates to make a stand.

I'll post about his FISA statement in a little bit.