Iraq and the White House call it something else, but the media is calling it Obama's Iraq withdrawal plan...
It's pretty clear now that following the White House's pressure on Maliki to retract his statement in which he endorsed Obama's Iraq withdrawal plan, what is now happening is he is coming out and saying he wants a timetable for withdrawal with troops getting out by 2010 (which is Obama's plan), but he just won't call it Obama's plan, he is calling it Iraq's plan, in an attempt to avoid getting caught in the US election. But the media is seeing right through it...
This is what I alluded to yesterday. It doesn't matter if you agree with Obama or McCain here. Or if you think Obama should get the credit for wanting to withdraw or if McCain should get the credit for the surge success. The media is playing this as the Iraqi and U.S. governments moving towards Obama's Iraq plan, and that makes Obama look like a leader on the issue while McCain is going out there talking about something that is before the fact. The sad truth is that Americans have a very short attention span. The surge may have worked, but that was before. NOW it is about withdrawal, and withdrawal is associated with Obama.
What is happening here is McCain's stance is suddenly turning into a very extreme plan. We can say that Obama's plan and Iraq's plan is virtually the same -- withdrawal in 16 months. Now, even Bush's plan is a withdrawal of some sort over the next year or two. Where does that leave McCain, who has been branded as the candidate who wants to stay in Iraq?
Obama was right about the war being a mistake. McCain was right about the surge. But the latest "right" is getting out of Iraq, and that is what Obama has wanted and has been branded as representing. And people tend to give far too much importance to the latest "right" and not enough importance to the "rights" that got us there. That is what is happening here. Obama has the trump card because he now has the latest, and perhaps final, card to play on the issue.
That is why this issue is turning into such a winner for him. This could be an issue that we look back on in November and remember as a turning point. It's that big.
Is there anything positive occurring in the world that we cannot attribute to Obama's intellect?
Posted By: AdmChesterMynutz (Guest) on July 21, 2008 at 02:15 PM
lol @ time horizon.
Posted By: Guest#3484 (Guest) on July 21, 2008 at 03:48 PM
Surprisingly enough Admiral, know. I looked into the lack of hurricanes so far this year, but it turns out Obama precipitated it in 2003 by having a butterfly flap its wings backwards...
Posted By: Andrew Tobolowsky (Registered) on July 21, 2008 at 04:32 PM
STAY CURRENT