Friday, 4 July 2008

Obama the ditherer?


Barack Obama may well have slipped up over his remarks about withdrawing troops from Iraq.
The Democratic candidate who stood on the platform of instant withdrawal said that the policy may well be refined after meeting military leaders but within hours held a news conference to say that he would keep to the 16 month timetable.

"Let me be as clear as I can be: I intend to end this war "My first day in office, I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in, and I will give them a new mission. That is to end this war, responsibly, deliberately but decisively."


According to this morning's New York Times,

His two statements in Fargo, N.D., reflected how the changing dynamics in Iraq have posed a challenge for Mr. Obama, who is trying to retain flexibility as violence declines there without abandoning a central promise of his campaign: that if elected, he would end the war


Its leader goes rather further reminding us that

He spoke with passion about breaking out of the partisan mold of bickering and catering to special pleaders, promised to end President Bush’s abuses of power and subverting of the Constitution and disowned the big-money power brokers who have corrupted Washington politics.
however

Now there seems to be a new Barack Obama on the hustings. First, he broke his promise to try to keep both major parties within public-financing limits for the general election

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