Hey! Pundits! Bob Gates Is Pretty Much OK With Withdrawing Combat Troops From Iraq on a 16-Month Timeline!

By GottaLaff

Spencer Ackerman is having way too much fun:

Gates is OK with Obama’s timetable for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq in 16 months!

[...] Gates was asked about the timetable, and he said working within Obama’s 16-month-ish timetable, with appropriate adjustments along commanders’ recommendations, is an “agreeable approach.” Gates noted that the Status of Forces Agreement compels a full withdrawal by Dec. 2011 and a withdrawal from Iraqi towns and cities by next summer, and said commanders in Iraq are exploring a “potential acceleration” of any drawdown. “I’m less concerned about a timetable,” he said. [...]

All this really speaks to the political wisdom of keeping Gates. The Republican defense secretary who implemented the surge just endorsed withdrawing combat troops from Iraq according to a deadline — something that John McCain, the pre-July George W. Bush and a raft of conservative commenters have said for years would herald the apocalypse. What are they going to say now that Gates is in favor of it?

Chances are, not a whole lot, since they can’t seem to comprehend the idea. Here’s Max Boot on the implications of Gates’ reappointment:

This all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq…

And here’s Mara Liasson, the token liberal commentator on Fox News:

16 months has gone out the window, I think we can say that.

This is how a new progressive-realist consensus on foreign policy gets forged.

I love this transition if for nothing more than articles like this one.

Here's another reason: Obama actually listens. Yes, he has actual conversations with governors, no strings attached (as in, say, dictating the one, single, pre-determined question that a Republican and a Democrat are allowed to ask at such a gathering.*) Imagine that. A president who sees constructive input as a positive. Great idea.

Just ask the governors he listened to earlier today.

*That anectdote came to me via Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on today's Rachel Maddow radio show. I heard it with my own two very ears.