The Evolution And Education Of A Candidate

ABC News notes the shift in Obama's position on Iraq.  Get Matt!

BACK WHEN I WAS YOUNG AND SNIDE:  For the impatient among you I summarized the Matt Yglesias article on Obama's foreign policy process this way:

AND SPEAKING OF JUST MAKING STUFF UP:  Shorter Matt Yglesias: Obama's foreign policy is really just an ongoing attempt to rationalize whatever extemporaneous toad hopped out of Barack's mouth this week.  And that's a good thing!

Comments

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I continue in my feeling that Obama's core belief is that he believes he'd like to be President.

[Maddie (formerly Anon1)]

Funny, Charlie (Colorado)!

He seems like he's flying by the seat of his pants - say whatever, do whatever. Whatever, whatever, whatever. I mean, Rezko, Wright, Pfleger, whatever, I didn't really mean what I said when I said it and whatever I said, I didn't say it the way you said I said it.

[Appalled]

TM:

Better fix the typo. You have the wrong country posted.

[Little Billy]

"ABC News notes the shift in Obama's position on Iraq."

You mean "Iran". Obama's position on Iraq is the same...surrender and turn it over to the terrorists.

[Jane]

Hey Maddie - nice new name.

[Paul Zrimsek]

This isn't the Obama I knew.

[bgates]

How did ABC get picked to be 'bad cop' in the medias' efforts to elect Obama?
And isn't it racist and anti-Democratic to show Obama in the crosshairs like that?

[bad]

Of course his position "evolves". This is the cadidate of change. I've changed my mind about (fill in the blank)... My old friends have changed... I've changed my associations...

[MarkO]

Hey. He’s nuanced. Play along, boys and girls. Come forth and be healed. (hard "d")

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Bad, I had the same thought last night: he can prove he's the candidate of change, because his positions change from day to day.

[MikeS]

So, now Obama is pledging 4 more years of the Bush policy?

[bad]

Charlie (Colorado)

And let's not forget how quick he is to CHANGE his website.

[Neo]

Speaking of learning as you go ..

West acknowledges that the IPCC and other scientific groups have "conclude[d] that the contribution of solar variability to global warming is negligible." He argues that these groups have done a poor job modeling the Sun's impact, however, and that's why they have "significantly over-estimated" the "anthropogenic contribution to global warming."

.. but .. but the Goracle said this was "settled science" ?

[kim]

The Army is clearly out of step, here. There is no measure of change in the sun that can account for the changes in climate, but, nonetheless, the sun probably ultimately drives climate change, in concert with oceanic oscillations and some unknown mechanism having to do with clouds and water vapor. The Army is right, but maybe for the wrong reason. That is bad science. They do not have the mechanism, so they are speculating.

They do add fuel to the fire(power) that CO2 does not have the effect on climate that those who wish to seize power through carbon are trying to continue to get you to believe. The evidence is tumbling upon us that they are wrong; atmospheres and oceans are cooling, now at an accelerating rate. It will soon be possible to question the motives of those who will not consider such evidence, and still try to insist on a carbon taxation that will be a holocaust on those humans living on the margins of existence.
==============================

[Pofarmer]

Considering that without the sun, we'd just be a rock with frozen water on it sitting in space, I think the idea that the sun DOESN'T happen to influence our climate is a little further out there than the idea that it does.

How's that for a run on sentence??

[ParseThis]

Obama's gut instincts are solid.

[Danube of Thought]

"Obama's gut instincts are solid."

Here's a choice Obama gut instinct from January, 2007:

"… In the face of this quagmire, the notion that we would put tens of thousands more young Americans in harm's way without changing our fundamental strategy, a strategy that's failed by almost every imaginable count , makes absolutely no sense. In escalating the war with a so-called surge of troops, the president would be overriding the express concerns of Generals on the ground, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and the American people."

[glasater]

Pofarmer--how's the corn planting going? Have read that rain is causing the midwest some headaches.

It always seemed to me that the Farmers Almanac predicted weather by checking out the sunspot activity.

Will be doing my homework on that subject by checking what the Almanac looks like on the internet:-)

[ben]

"I’m saddened by today’s verdict. This isn’t the Tony Rezko I knew, but now he has been convicted by a jury on multiple charges that once again shine a spotlight on the need for reform. I encourage the General Assembly to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent these kinds of abuses in the future."

It's funny how many people Obama knew that aren't the people he knew. It begs the question who is trying to pretend he is not the person THEY knew.

Obama's friends and associates were crooks, anti-American activists and terrorist bombers. The only thing that changed is that now Obama doesn't know them.

[reliapundit]

barack hussein amoeba has a rapidly "evolving" position on an undivided Jerusalem too.

said he favored it to JEWS at AIPAC yesterday and had staff basically deny he meant it TODAY.

what a piece of sheiss.

either way you look at it: if you are a zionist or anti-zionist you get bupkus.

so what should undecided voters think, how should they make up their minds?

by looking at the last 20 years of his life.

and what does a rational person see?

simple:

the chicago machi9ne.

the cook county machine.

the illionpois combine.

farrakhan.

wright.

pfleger.

ayers.

khalidi.

nuff said.

[Ranger]

Obama's gut instincts are solid.

Posted by: ParseThis | June 05, 2008 at 04:59 PM

This is a world where... white folks greed runs a world in need...

You mean those gut intincts?

[Ranger]

TM:

Better fix the typo. You have the wrong country posted.

Posted by: Appalled | June 05, 2008 at 01:09 PM

Give Obama time. He'll get around to flip-flopping on Iraq as soon as the polls show people are growing in confidence of victory there. TM is just ahead of the curve on this one.

[ParseThis]

Here's a choice Obama gut instinct from January, 2007:

Any discussion of the surge that doesn't include the Awakening, sectarian cleansing and refugee displacement is simply not credible. This argument against Obama doesn't deserve a hearing because it's dishonest. Obama was correct, and McCain's misleading is more of the same self-deception that defines this war.

[ben]

"Obama's gut instincts are solid."

Debatable, and could come in handy if deciding whether to run or play dead from a grizzly. For President, brains, experience, accomplishments and ideology have their role, and Obama is sorely lacking on all counts.

[Ranger]

Any discussion of the surge that doesn't include the Awakening, sectarian cleansing and refugee displacement is simply not credible. This argument against Obama doesn't deserve a hearing because it's dishonest. Obama was correct, and McCain's misleading is more of the same self-deception that defines this war.

Posted by: ParseThis | June 05, 2008 at 07:54 PM

So, what you are saying is that Obama would have been right, except for... X, Y, and Z, and therefore, his stunningly wrong prediction about the surge should be taken as correct, even though it was wrong?

[hit and run]

Parse, nice LUN.

You're ok in my book for endorsing that kind of humor!

[hit and run]

From that gut 2007 Obama quote in which he objecting to Bush's surge strategy:

the president would be overriding the express concerns of Generals on the ground

Now, notwithstanding the evidence necessary to prove that the surge was overriding the express concerns of the Generals on the ground at the time, let's assume that Obama's words then were from principle and not from political rhetoric...

So, Obama would never, ever override Petraeus/Odierno?

You know, I'm not one to give Obama advice and all -- but he could get mileage out of that kind of committment today.

[ben]

"Obama was correct, and McCain's misleading is more of the same self-deception that defines this war."

The real deception is that Obama somehow was "correct" and voted against the war. He was not a senator and didn't vote. Faced with the same intelligence real senators had at the time, nobody knows how he would have voted, in fact in a rare moment of honesty he admitted it himself. His positions since them have been of an opportunist, but the winds of war have shifted and he is now trying to backtrack and obfuscate. Sectarian cleansing existed way before the war of course, Saddam killed hundred of thousands of Shiites, and any damm fool can see the surge has drastically reduced both sectarian violence and refugee displacement.

[MikeS]

Has anyone found out what accomplishments Obama had that McCain denies??

[hit and run]

Well, Obama has survived this long being married to Michelle.

I think McCain should publicly honor that accomplishment.

[MikeS]

Well, Obama has survived this long being married to Michelle.

In the movie Enemy Of The State, Will Smith's character was married to a Michelle-like character, played by Regina King. I can't help thinking that the actress knew Mrs. Obama before she made the movie.

[ben]

A nice summary on the real Obama from Paul Mirengoff at Powerline:

Opportunism knocks

Earlier this year, three-fourths of the Senate voted in favor of a resoution designating the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization. Among those who voted for the resolution were Hillary Clinton, Richard Durbin, Harry Reid, and Chuck Schumer. Obama voted against it.

Yesterday, however, Obama told the AIPAC convention that the Iranian National Guard is, in fact, a terrorist organization. He attempted to explain his recent vote to the contrary by claiming that the resolution contained language about military action. But this is false, and transparently so -- if it had contained such language Clinton, Durbin, Reid, and Schumer would have opposed it.

Obama's change in position on the Iranian National Guard is mirrored in other flip-flops, with more likely to come. On the vital issue of the Iraq war, for example, Obama spoke out against it as a state legislator. But when running for the U.S. Senate in 2004, he declared that there is little difference between his position on Iraq and that of President Bush. After his election, differences quickly reappeared, and Obama's position continued to evolve over the next several years. When it comes to Iraq, Obama makes the John Kerry of 2004 look constant.

There's not much mystery any more about what Obama is. He's a default hard-leftist with a streak of opportunism as big as all outdoors. When he's competing in a general election, the opportunist mode naturally prevails. But if he 's elected president, especially assuming (as I do) a solid working majority in Congress, we can expect Obama to default to his hard-leftism."

[Charlie (Colorado)]

You're ok in my book for endorsing that kind of humor!

If it doesn't include cheesecake pictures of Pamela, the hell with it.

[glasater]

AT has an interesting article by Ed Lasky regarding BHO's behavior on the Senate floor.

It looks like BHO is trying to put the full court press on Sen. Lieberman.

The video is here.

[ben]

Full court press on Lieberman not working evidently:

From CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Joe Lieberman – who has taken on increasingly high-profile campaign roles on behalf of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain – announced Thursday that he was launching and heading a new grassroots organization, "Citizens for McCain," with a direct appeal to Hillary Clinton’s disappointed supporters.

“The phones at the campaign headquarters have been ringing with disaffected Democrats calling to say they believe Senator McCain has the experience, judgment, and bipartisanship necessary to lead our country in these difficult times,”...

Pretty amazing considering he came within 500 votes of being VP for Gore.

[kim]

Was that Hillary in pink who stopped them briefly as they roared off?
=====================

[Jim Glass]

For anything that has anything to do with Obama, I blame Brannon Braga.

[glasater]

I also was curious about the woman in pink who got the brush off, Kim.
Am certain some sharp eyed person would have known who it was but I don't think it was Hillary.

[bgates]

Any discussion of the surge that doesn't include the Awakening, sectarian cleansing and refugee displacement is simply not credible.
OK. Part of the reason for the tremendous success of the surge is that it put Americans in position to engage the Awakening and ensure Sunni nationalism could have enjoy some success once it was turned against al Qaeda rather than against us or the Shia-dominated government. Splitting the Sunni mainstream from the Baathists and terrorists in their midst made the Shia feel they could afford to rid themselves of the Sadrists, whose thuggery could only be justified by the Sunni threat. Once the Shia and Sunni communities each saw the other turning against the bad actors who had precipitated the sectarian cleansing, they began to trust one another, which began the reversal of the refugee displacement.
Obama not only denied all of this could happen in 2007, when the idea was supported only by the best counterinsurgency thinking in the military, he continues to deny it is happening now (as of Fri Jun 6 3:24AM, though it's only a matter of time before he declares these are not the Maliki government or counterinsurgency doctrine he once knew).

[bgates]

oops

[bgates]

and again, for real this time...

[Sara]

I don't know where to post this, so here it is:

FOR TOM MAGUIRE, see someone has paid attention re: Woods Fund

Watch the video

[Sdferr]

The woman in pink was most likely Mary Landrieu

[richard mcenroe]

The Obamassiah is not doing it right. His disciples are supposed to renounce him not the other way round.