PrintJuly 3, 2008
Obama: 'The Last Frontier of Flip Flops'
Ed Morrissey has a great post up at Hot Air about Obama's advisors giving three different answers to the question of where the candidate stands on Iraq in a matter of days.
Reading what his advisers are saying, you begin to see how Obama has been able to appear to be all things to all people on his Iraq withdrawal plans while dishonestly pandering to his base:
Reading what his advisers are saying, you begin to see how Obama has been able to appear to be all things to all people on his Iraq withdrawal plans while dishonestly pandering to his base:
The last frontier of flip-flops approaches for Barack Obama, and even his surrogates can't seem to guess which way the wind blows on any given day. In three different appearances over the last two days, David Axelrod, Susan Rice, and Claire McCaskill all offered competing visions of Obama's policy on Iraq. First, we have Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, insisting that his January 2007 plan was still operative yesterday: ..."he’s always said that he would listen to the advice of commanders on the ground, that that would factor into his thinking. He’s also said we have to be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. So he’s been very consistent on this point."
Ed Lasky points to this article that clearly shows Obama saying he would go ahead with a withdrawal regardless of what the generals said:
"Because the commander-in-chief sets the mission, Charlie. That's not the role of the generals. And one of the things that's been interesting a out the president's approach lately has been to say, 'Well, I'm just taking cues from General Petraeus.' Well, the president sets the mission. The general and our troops carry out that mission.
Senator Claire McCaskill, Obama's c-chair, confirmed the fact that Obama would not necessarily heed what the generals had to say:
However, on the same day, Senator Claire McCaskill — Obama’s campaign co-chair — told MS-NBC that advice on the ground wouldn’t deflect Obama from his commitment to withdraw troops or change his plans at all.
And finally, Obama's foreign policy adviser Susan Rice muddies the waters further:
He has said that the best military advice he’s received leads us to believe that we can safely withdraw our forces at the pace of one to two combat brigades per month, and depending on the number of combat brigades he inherits, our best estimate is that that could be accomplished in roughly 16 months. That’s not a deadline. That’s a timetable, and obviously if Senator Obama has said on numerous occasions, he will listen to his commanders on the ground, he will follow and heed their advice as he decides how at the strategic level we must proceed. So he will do this very carefully and responsibly as he always said but he will do it.
Three advisers. Three different plans for Iraq while the candidate continues to insist to wild applause from his base that he will leave Iraq immediately.
The brazenness of this flip flopping is one thing. It is the rank dishonesty of a candidate seeking to be all things to all people that should worry us. Why? Because he will have more money than God in which to convince people of whatever he wishes to say.
And that should worry all Americans.
