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Do the Netroots Get a Revote?
Obama faces the challenge of acknowledging progress in Iraq without alienating the left-wing base that nominated him.
Barack Obama began — in fits and starts — to alter his stance on Iraq. It followed Obama’s movement on a host of issues including FISA extension/immunity for telecom companies, NAFTA, public campaign financing, participation in town hall meetings, gay marriage, the payroll tax cap, and the Second Amendment. But this is his biggest reversal to date, both because of the magnitude of the issue and because it was a focal point of his primary campaign run.
On July 3 Obama offered up this:
My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything that I’ve said, was always premised on making sure that our troops were safe. I said that based on the information that we had received from our commanders that one to two brigades a month could be pulled out safely, from a logistical perspective. My guiding approach continues to be that we’ve got to make sure that our troops are safe and that Iraq is stable. I’m going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold.
When that set off a media buzz, suggesting that Obama was finally abandoning his insistence on withdrawing a brigade or two a month, he retreated. He called a second presser to assure his base and the media that nothing was changing and he was “not searching for maneuvering room.” Nevertheless, pundits and the McCain team went into overdrive, sensing that the moment had finally come when Obama was throwing his retreat-at-all-costs policy overboard. Some conservatives praised him for belatedly getting on board with an eighteen-month-old surge policy that had changed the landscape in Iraq and made a successful outcome possible.
But by Saturday, July 5, Obama was having second and third thoughts. He claimed to have been himself “puzzled” that anyone could have thought his Thursday comment a signal he was changing course and declared: “I don’t think in anyway it is inconsistent with prior statements and doesn’t change my strategic view that this war has to end and that I am going to end it as president.”
Then last week he was reduced to pleading that he had not in fact changed position on Iraq or other topics. Although he hinted at a more flexible timetable in an interview with the Military Times, when before partisan audiences he reverted to his previous standard-fare language on an unequivocal withdrawal of troops in 16 months.
And now this week in the New York Times he attempted to set out his new policy. As Churchill said of Russia, “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” He seems to acknowledge a downturn in violence yet is silent on the efficacy of the surge and of the political and military advances which the surge made possible. The 16-month withdrawal schedule is still there, but he now openly talks of a “residual force” which will remain. How large and for how long (Is it the 100 years for which he derided McCain?) we don’t know. If not moving to embrace the McCain surge he clearly is scooting away from his hard and fast withdrawal pledge — the very position which gained him the netroots’ support in the primary.
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Jennifer Rubin is PJM's Washington, DC, editor. She also blogs at Commentary’s Contentions.
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20 Comments
1. huxley:Hands down, Obama is the most Orwellian presidential candidate we have ever had.
Jul 18, 2008 - 1:13 am 2. SAF:Obama is brilliant. First he figured out how to win the dem nomination by running to the left, now he will run to the center to win the presidency. He has lots of latitude to do this as the left has no place where to go except him.
When elected he will govern left.
Very smart guy.
Jul 18, 2008 - 4:00 am 3. Lisa:I begin to believe that Obama’s only firm opinion is that he is the greatest man in history.
Jul 18, 2008 - 6:54 am 4. David:I voted for Senator Obama in the primaries. I now have a serious case of buyers remorse. Inspirational speaker with no substance, I wish I had looked into him more instead of being swept up in emotion. How I now long for Hillary and Bill.
I guess I will go third party this election ala Nader, Voting republican is out of the question.
Jul 18, 2008 - 7:13 am 5. J.J. Sefton:SAF: They could go for the ultimate bipartisan ticket – KUCINICH-PAUL ‘08!!!
Oh, the humanity……
Jul 18, 2008 - 7:14 am 6. Mike:It really suggests how dense the netroots must be. No POTUS, Obama included, would accept the possibility of being remembered as the nation’s leader who literally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, which is what could happen if a withdrawal from Iraq is done too hastily. But Obama is extremely lucky as well, for if elected by the time he assumes office President Bush will have already done much to secure the country, withdraw troops and, as an added bonus, begun increasing troop level in Afghanistan. Building on such success Obama, and the Democrats, can take credit for events and outcomes they did nothing to achieve, indeed did everything to thwart. Now that really does deserve a cheer of “Yes We Can.”
Jul 18, 2008 - 7:25 am 7. Tony:If the netroots swallowed all the rubbish Flipper threw their way before the primaries then they aren’t going to bail on him now no matter what twists and turns his “hope and change” BS takes.
They ARE that stupid and he knows it. Now he just has to fool a chunk of folks in the centre and the election is won.
Jul 18, 2008 - 8:09 am 8. GM Roper:“Pay no attention to that messiah behind the green curtain… I SAID PAY NO ATTEN…”
Jul 18, 2008 - 8:45 am 9. Sheila:“I guess I will go third party this election ala Nader, Voting republican is out of the question.”
And David, what is that going to achieve? Your “remorse” is disingenuous.
Jul 18, 2008 - 8:48 am 10. Dan,Riverside,CA:When we were young we worked on our own cars-(yeah,muscle cars-big V-8’s,multiple carbs etc.)real screamers.We spent most of our effort and money on the components that mattered,the engine and drive train.The more ‘elite’ guys
Jul 18, 2008 - 8:50 am 11. schnargley:(who had less real skill and more of Daddy’s money)went in for more paint and chrome than performance.We used to say “yeah,well,if it don’t go-chrome it!”.Obama reminds me of cheap chrome.
When will you guys ever get it? It does not important whether Obama supposedly refines and adjusts his position to the center. He cannot, in effect move to the center. He is the center. He is the culmination of thousands of years of human history, the finality of all human wisdom, the answer to our deepest fears and most unspoken hopes.
Jul 18, 2008 - 9:05 am 12. Mary in LA:[David] “I guess I will go third party this election ala Nader, Voting republican is out of the question.”
Are you sure you won’t consider voting for John McCain? He may wear an R, but he’s actually the best Democrat out there.
(yes, I’m gonna vote for him…)
Jul 18, 2008 - 10:13 am 13. Dane:“Are you sure you won’t consider voting for John McCain? He may wear an R, but he’s actually the best Democrat out there.”
Yeah, I was gonna say – have you actually looked at McCain’s voting record on anything other than foreign policy? It’s certainly not the Republican party line – in some areas, he’s to the left of the more centrist Democrats in Congress.
Jul 18, 2008 - 10:29 am 14. craig:This is an impossible situation. Yes Obama pandered to the netroots about the main issue which was losing the war, and yes we came within six months of a downward spiral to defeat so Obama thought it would be a safe bet.
The reality is I think the netroots have to come to terms with reality not Obama. Obama is a politician and a smart guy without strong principals. He will do whatever it takes to win the war now because it looks good for him if he is allowed to do so.
I think the netroots knows inside that no matter what Obama says he will let them down. They might as well accept the buyers remorse and let him flip already. If they don’t they may lose him the election.
Anyway I think this group of people and that includes moveon.org needs a little bit of a reality check. Yes Bush screwed up. Yes McCain, Hillary, and most dems and republicans thought the war was the right thing to do based on very faulty intelligence and the belligerance of the Bush admin.
But your anger doesn’t help us now. These groups cannot look like they want us to lose in Iraq because that can be portrayed by many as almost treachorous. Also it is meaningless since whomever is president will work this out with the Iraqi government.
Let Obama do what he has to do. We live in a tough world. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet. If Iraq is a success with democrat help they will be rewarded even if it is late in the game.
Jul 18, 2008 - 10:36 am 15. mouse:schnargley, you get it! Speaking of Obama:
“He is the center. He is the culmination of thousands of years of human history, the finality of all human wisdom, the answer to our deepest fears and most unspoken hopes.”
I understand this well, it describes me perfectly… or at least up until I was eight years old when Billy Johnson punched me out on the playground because he didn’t agree with me. Obama’s problem is that he never met Billy Johnson, only white people so pleased to know a pleasant black guy with a grin.
I know very well that there are a lot of Billy Johnsons out there, I hope there are enough. It’s too late to help Obama, but it might save the republic.
Jul 18, 2008 - 10:54 am 16. Dave II:I get the feeling here, many think that since Obama flipped (on many issues, not just Iraq) and since the netroots will go with him anyway (many as above though are having “buyers remorse”) then the vast center will just fall in line with him because he NOW says what THEY want to hear…
I don’t believe the independent/center is as gullible as the netroots were or are for Obama! One reason they ARE the center is they don’t swallow the line of EITHER party and have a healthy skepticism about a candidate until he shows them his TRUE COLORS. Obama’s true colors are coming through as the fraud and political hack he is, with no core principles and glib tongue that belies a complete lack of judgement and character.
As the saying goes: You can fool some of the people some of the time (as he did to win the primary) but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
And he won’t come November.
Jul 18, 2008 - 10:59 am 17. Troy:They should, and they should vote for….?
Jul 18, 2008 - 11:03 am 18. patty b:what i dont like about this empty headed moron is not policy really BUT HIS ARROGNANCE AND THE HANG DOG DEPRESSED LOOK ON HIS HATEFUL WIFE I PRAY TO GOD HE DOES NOT WIN I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THOSE IN THE MEDIA IF HE DOSENT.
Jul 18, 2008 - 11:57 am 19. susie:Obama is running for President of the World. He has been invited to debate / town hall meeting with McCain at Ft. Bragg. He declined (schedule conflicts) even when they agreed to change the date to meet his schedule. He wants to be Commander in Chief but can’t speak to the troops and their families. He rather “kiss-up” to the European’s and give campaign speeches in France and Germany.
He is an “ombanation”.
Jul 18, 2008 - 1:53 pm 20. fred:I am not as optimistic about the “Center” in the country. I call it the Middle Muddle, because these are people who cannot at least pick a side in a war, political or military. They cannot identify their fundamental, uncompromising principles, and then stand on them. I was a lifelong Democrat until 2003, and much of the early part of that time was spent on the Far Left. Once I had exhausted my search for an epistemologically, theologically, and scientifically sound “third way” Marxism, I gave up the project and moved on away from the Left. Now, I’m slightly Right-of-Center. Not always happy with the Republican Party, but there is enough in that party for me to agree with some basic principles: limited government and strong national defense. And I agree with capitalism, with some minor tweaking thrown in. It works. If you think it doesn’t, then talk with people from Eastern Europe. They’ll let you in on a secret that Obonga and the Netroots haven’t figured out yet: socialism is a failure and has failed everywhere it’s been tried in history.
Jul 19, 2008 - 7:25 pm