Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper

« Previous | Main | Next »

Obama’s Iraq Quagmire

July 03, 2008 4:40 PM

FROM GUEST-BLOGGER RICK KLEIN, from ABC's The Note.

There’s been lots of speculation this week about whether Sen. Barack Obama has an Iraq problem. He does now.

His comments Thursday, saying that he will “continue to refine” his plan to withdraw combat troops from Iraq inside of 16 months, seems likely to leave the campaign on the defensive on this issue for days or weeks.

And it increases the likelihood that his trip to Iraq later this month will not turn out like Obama wants it to.

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.

Obama has almost always built in some wiggle room into his proposal -- including promises to consult with commanders on the ground -- but surely not always. For point of reference, go to Obama’s own campaign Website:

“Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.”

That’s pretty unequivocal.

Obama’s migration to the political center has been well-documented, and is already a frame McCain is building around his candidacy. But Iraq -- this is qualitatively different, an issue that lives on a higher plane, since opposing the war was the rationale for his candidacy in the first place.

-- Rick Klein

July 3, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (150)

User Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Hey Cindy - they can always use Rene Marie to keep the race issue humming along.

Posted by: Temagami | Jul 4, 2008 9:11:38 AM

The Obama camp is lost when they can't play the race card.

They probably long for the good old days when they could blame Hillary for everything.

MCCain08

Posted by: cindy in nc | Jul 4, 2008 9:07:21 AM


Hope to God you don’t delete this:
This guy got you blinded by his white teeth and smoothess. How can we stomach four years of this flip flopping? If this is not a sign I don't know what is. The next thing he is gonna come up with is that the Republicans are putting words in my mouth! And the sad thing is you're gonna believe that too.
This guy IS UNSTABLE. How is he going to fight hard for issues that he's not even sure he wants to keep Promises, promises, promises! Weak promises how are thy going to hold faced with an unfriendly congress. (No press no voters) It’s a lonely place up there. Do you think he’s got the experience to fight for the like warm issues that are not even sure about. You better wake up soon. Come on you people. Get I grip. I give him credit for trying to divide this countryfor his own agenda. That’s what I give him credit for.

He is not the one to do us proud this time. We should wait for the right guy or gal.Or, are we that desperate because he is part white and he is our half chance? Heh! Ok the truth now.
I say no. We have 250 years of history. With men and women who walked the walk and talked thThis guy got you blinded by his white teeth. How can we stomach four years of this flip flopping? If this is not a sign I don't know what is. The next thing he is gonna come up with is that the Republicans are putting words in my mouth! And the sad thing is you're gonna believe that too.
This guy IS UNSTABLE. How is he going to fight hard for issues that he's not even sure he wants to keep. Promises, promises, promises! You better wake up soon. Come on you people.
He is not the one to do us proud this time.We should wait for the right guy or gal. Or are we that desperate because he is part white and he is our half chance? Heh!
I say no. We have 250 years of history with men and women who walked the walk and talked the talk.
I say let's wait for Condoleezza Rice. She encompasses everything. SHE is the ONE. She is lot smarter than him. You better believe it.

He's maybe pretty and all but he still needs a lot of character grooming, and senatorial experience.
First off Senator you don't treat voters like commodities. and the 50 States like Real Estates. This the United States of America. It needs a leader. NOT a broker not a Real Estates investor. A plain good well rounded leader. He surrounded himself with everybody wanting a piece of the action and they all are clobbering the voters.

Hope to God you guys don't delete this..
I say let's wait for Condoleezza Rice. She encompasses everything. SHE is the ONE. She is lot smarter than him. You better believe it. Don’t blame the administration on her now she had enough on her plate. She is well respected in all Europe and the Middle East. She is the iron Lady

He's maybe pretty and all but he still needs a lot of character grooming, and senetorial experience.
First off Senetor you don't treat voters like commodities. and the 50 States like Real Estates.This the United States of America. It needs a leader. NOt a broker not Real Estates investor.A plain good well rounded leader. He surrounde himself witheverybody wanting a piece of the action and they all are clobbering the voters.

Hope to God you guys don't delete this.

Posted by: gloria | Jul 4, 2008 8:42:59 AM

Rodney

"OLD MAN" MCCAIN BEATS THE HECK OUT OF YOUNG LIBERAL FOOL OBAMA.

Posted by: Manitu | Jul 4, 2008 8:25:15 AM

I equate Obama's judgement about the same as Rene Marie's - who was supposed to sing The National Anthem in Denver, instead sang The Black National Anthem just because she wanted to express her feelings about being a black woman in America.

Posted by: Manitu | Jul 4, 2008 8:09:15 AM

bho will back off anything if it is politically expedient.

Posted by: tr | Jul 4, 2008 4:52:36 AM

What was that about Obama's "Judgment to Lead"

If Obama had such good judgment he would have judged the surge would work and he should have had the judgment to figure it out LONG ago.

McCain was one of the first to suggest the surge and deemed we needed to stay the course after the surge had begun. We are now on the verge of VICTORY, in part it is due to McCain's judgment and dispite of Obama's LACK of judgment!

McCain is the only one in this race that has the "Judgment to Lead".

Posted by: Ordi | Jul 4, 2008 1:34:22 AM

Obama is turning into G W Bush more and more each day. Except Bush has shown that he sticks by his principles.

Posted by: jamrat | Jul 4, 2008 1:28:15 AM

Wow... the media is getting duped by the RNC and the McCain campaign. The RNC's distorted talking points are being written on verbatim. The media has been in John McCain's pocket for a long time now. It's no surprise, after all, you guys are his base. You shameful cowards should start doing some reporting, instead of using RNC talking points as facts.

Posted by: David | Jul 4, 2008 1:25:04 AM

Obama is the Imelda Marcos of political positions: he has a collection of different ones to match every occasion and every audience!!!

The only difference is that Imelda had one right shoe for every left shoe….


Posted by: landlines | Jul 4, 2008 1:10:57 AM

Win or lose, Obama is condescending. All he does is say "let me be perfectly clear" when he shifts his position 45 degrees or so. Too clever by half in my book.

This time he admonished, "let's try this again" as if people were just too dense to get his nuanced position.

Posted by: Wade | Jul 4, 2008 12:26:10 AM

Obama is a lier, he used the Iraq war to win the nominee. Now he faced the reality with the Republican that he can no longer tell a lie, then he change his tone.
Only people like sweet they will die for Obama.

I am a Democrat, I support Hillary, I will vote for McCain.

Posted by: Kevin P | Jul 3, 2008 11:59:53 PM

So ummm.. how about an update? Since, you know, there was that second press conference and all? No? Journalists try to hide it when they jump the gun and the candidate calls them on it, don't they?

Posted by: BP | Jul 3, 2008 11:40:57 PM

ricky
i have the solution for nader---we should send him a poster of ford pinto.
he will think it is like old times. i am as old as there guys and know that i have slipped a little---if you remember in ronnies last year in office he started acting like mccain and we know why....sad but non the less true.

Posted by: rodney | Jul 3, 2008 10:54:34 PM

scotty ----remember it is republicans that got us into the iraq mess.

Posted by: rodney | Jul 3, 2008 10:46:36 PM

dee i will answer that for you-------and a senile old man is what a laugh.

Posted by: rodney | Jul 3, 2008 10:38:53 PM

i still think we should get out of iraq in a timely manner------give israel what they need and let them deal with iran---they are very good at doing so----had to for many years

Posted by: rodney | Jul 3, 2008 10:36:51 PM

I remember Obama months ago saying that he would always reserve the right to make changes based on the situation on the ground. This is nothing new. And I don't believe his commitment to ending the war has changed one bit.

All he is saying is we should apply common sense and fact based sound judgement to decision making in Iraq - not merely base it on ideology.

...But naturally the press go crazy; this is way too complicated for a journalist to comprehend.

Posted by: El_Pajaro | Jul 3, 2008 10:24:35 PM

ricky
we need to make a few more corvairs will give nader something to do

Posted by: rodney | Jul 3, 2008 10:19:56 PM

since mccain is another bush---how could obama possibly do worse.especially in iraq

Posted by: rodney | Jul 3, 2008 10:17:40 PM

Post a comment





 

POLITICAL VIDEOS