McCain Could Support Withdrawal Timetable...Huh?

Posted by Bryant Daniels on 07.29.2008

Looks like someone's going to embolden the enemy....

John McCain told CNN's Larry King on Monday night that he could see himself supporting a 16 month timetable for withdrawal of troops within Iraq, if the generals on the ground there would support it. The presumptive Republican nominee said the move would not however have a firm date attached to it, something Senator Obama has proposed with his idea for withdrawal.

"Now whether that fits into 16 months or not, or one month, or whatever, the point is it's got to be conditions-based," McCain said of the possible timetable. This is perhaps McCain's most pronounced move to the center since his campaign has started, certainly since Obama has been the presumptive Democratic nominee. Unfortunately for McCain this is perhaps the one move he could ill afford to make, considering the foundation of his entire foreign policy strategy has been his perceived correctness in supporting the troop surge and his long standing fight against a timetable.

Look, we all know what the polls say, that America wants out of a war it feels it never should have gotten itself into, but back-peddling on a timetable can only make you look like your average politician, in a year where "change" is the political buzz-word. McCain has fervently fought against a timetable for sometime now, using the lexicon of the average conservative pundit, claiming the move will embolden the enemy and show a perceived global weakness of the American resolve. Those are fine words when rallying a neo-con town hall meeting in Arkansas, but once that becomes your status quo, saying anything short of that is a letdown.

All the move can serve to do it further ostracize McCain from the republican base voters who are hardly enamored with him to begin with. The centrist policies he should be flaunting to the American people are the same ones he's held most of his political career; lets not forget just how open to bipartisanship McCain really is, with items like immigration, campaign finance reform and environmental protection to name a few (we'll ignore the off-shore drilling for now, chalk it up to the gas prices). There is an inherent danger with a centrist candidate trying to divert himself further to the center, especially in the face of his own countless words. And for the hardcore right-winger looking for a bone, this will most assuredly not suffice. To the conservative and liberal alike, McCain's embrace of a timetable will seem disingenuous.