Re. The Art of Flip-Flopping
Two things; both Obama supporters who say that not much changed and those who say that Obama did change his opinion about Iraq are correct. Let me explain; firstly, Obama always expressed some caution. He would, he said, not withdraw hastily. He would talk to the Iraqi government, and coordinate the withdrawal with them, he said.
However, he always implied and said that this withdrawal would be dependent on… the United States. On the troops, etc., not on the situation in Iraq itself. He now added stability in Iraq to the requirements for withdrawal. That is a significant addition; after all, this is exactly the requirement which has pissed off the liberal base tremendously. ‘What is stability? Can it ever be stable?’ they ask and have asked for years.
In a way, then, you could say that he’s moving more towards the center, and more towards McCain on this issue. McCain has constantly emphasized stability (before withdrawing), whereas Obama emphasized the withdrawing part. He’s now slowly but surely changing this emphasis.
Whatever one thinks of Obama’s repositioning, I think that it’s pretty safe to say that many people - including myself - will be happy with it. It’s a sign that Obama may not withdraw as quickly from Iraq as the anti-war base wants. Doing so would be highly irresponsible (and disastrous for the US image abroad, trust me on that one). If Obama’s ‘flip-flopping’ into a responsible politician, well, that’s a good thing.
Michael I responded to Jason and Ill respond here as well. As I have seen it Barak Obama changing his mind is not a bad thing. We all do it. As one famous public figure once said "I look at the facts and make a decision…….what do you do sir?"
I have no problem with changing your mind. None. I think its wise and prudent and it of course has become the mantra of all politicians to leave themselves wiggle room on all issues. Or nearly all.
The problem has been that not only has Obama changed his mind but his mind changing on certain Issues……..Public finanace and FISA to name a couple……..not only changed his mind but it changed his core principals behind the resistance to those rejections. It is not the changing of the mind that has people questioning. It is his changing of core principals that has people nodding and saying "uh…huh…yep….another politician."
In another report issued by Barak Obama we find this.
In a separate six-page Iraq plan, he says in a section headed “All Combat Troops Redeployed by 2009”: “The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war is to begin immediately to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year — now.”
Anyone who says this man is not sending mixed signals is wrong. Secondly the initial reaction by the news and the blogsphere was over his FIRST news conference in which he said:
"When I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies,"
This was proceeded by an earlier Obama spokesman who said:
Earlier, a top Obama adviser had said that the senator is not “wedded” to a specific timeline.
This is a rough timeline of the events and it indicated to the blog sphere as well as the news outlets that the senator was making a big change in his Iraq policy.
THUS:
At the second meeting with reporters, Obama said: "We’re going to try this again. Apparently I wasn’t clear enough this morning on my position with respect to the war in Iraq. …
And there you have the timeline of WHY the press and the blog sphere went nuts. It was not because America is full of stupid voters.