2004: Obama on Iraq

By GottaLaff


This video is circulating in Republican "oppo precincts", per Mark Ambinder. It's a clip of Obama from 2004. Here's what Ambinder says:

So I guess what I'm getting to... is that Obama hasn't been consistent... but that consistency is not the coin of this realm. The Obama campaign claims that Obama has made an evidenced-based assessment of what to do and will continue to do as president; as the facts on the ground change, he won't stubbornly stick to preconceptions about what to do.

What do you think? Will voters laud Obama for his dexterity? Or do they prefer resilience?

I laud him for his dexterity. Read the whole (short) piece for more details, but I believe that, in this case, you can't pull a Chimpenfuhrer and stubbornly stick to your guns (literally) when some flexibility is in order. War is complicated, not black-and-white. One more excerpt:

A point about consistency: Obama has acknowledged that his policy on Iraq withdrawal has evolved as the conditions on the ground have changed, and so this video doesn't strike me as a smoking gun; it just reminds me that Iraq is an extremely complex issue, and that "stay the course" versus "withdrawal" has never been a good way to think about it.

There are no clear answers to the quandaries that Bush's insane occupation has forced on us. At least Obama realizes that bringing the troops home is important, as opposed to Confused McHundredYears'.