Obama advisor: If he goes to Iraq, it’ll be to plot withdrawal
posted at 2:02 pm on May 29, 2008 by Allahpundit
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The RNC’s circulating this, as they must, but realistically what does anyone expect them to say? “We’ve thought it over and are taking a second look at staying the course?” That’s no more likely than things going to pieces and McCain suddenly deciding it’s time to pull out, and may actually be less likely given that Obama’s early opposition to the war is the very crux of his vaunted foreign-policy judgment. Read Tom Bevan’s post this morning about the titanium-strength rigidity of the left’s and right’s competing Iraq narratives; I wasn’t kidding yesterday when I said you can predict exactly what Obama will say after emerging from a meeting with Petraeus. The political utility of having him go over there and sit through details of the progress that’s been achieved is that it boxes him in on his Iraq rhetoric for the rest of the campaign; he can and will still call for withdrawal, but he’ll be more circumspect and less aggressive about it. The substantive utility is that hearing it from Petraeus (or McMaster) in a private setting instead of in some televised hearing where he has to grandstand is that it may honestly drive home to him that there’s a chance of getting the country back on its feet, which may cause him to readjust his plans as C-in-C. At the very least, it can’t hurt. Just don’t expect for a minute to see or hear any signs of that readjustment on the trail.
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His campaign is going to have to control the audience composition pretty carefully he expects his typical enthusiastic fawning audiences in Baghdad.
RBMN on May 29, 2008 at 2:08 PM
Obama should make it two-day visit, just to make sure he has time to meet with Petraeus after having lunch and a photo-op with Sadr.
Bishop on May 29, 2008 at 2:12 PM
Just because we pick up our toys and go home doesn’t mean the enemy will do likewise…The fact of the matter is that an Obama Presidency will breath new life into a nearly defeated Al Qaeda. Some have a short memory with regard to 9-11, London, Madrid, the USS Cole, American Embassy bombings in Kenya, Khobar towers bombings and a host of others. Do these catastrophies need a sequel for certain parties to understand who we are dealing with?
Nozzle on May 29, 2008 at 2:13 PM
So the presidential candidate would go to plot our surrender to terrorists in Iraq. Lovely.
amerpundit on May 29, 2008 at 2:13 PM
That will prob. be saved for a side trip to Damascus.(note to Barry: get scarf from Nancy.)
Will he visit Israel? So close, and yet so far.
JiangxiDad on May 29, 2008 at 2:14 PM
just finished Jonah Goldbergs’s “Liberal Facism” and these people are starting to terrify me!!!!!!
tottoritodd on May 29, 2008 at 2:14 PM
I don’t think Obama is capable of planning anything. He is the emptiest, empty suit I’ve ever encountered. And the ones he will surround himself with if he is elected, are no better.
Blake on May 29, 2008 at 2:18 PM
McCain has succeeded in putting him on defense. Obama knows it and is trying to figure a way to turn the tables on McCain. Let’s see if McCain can keep him on defense from here to November, and make a grand spectacle of it.
petefrt on May 29, 2008 at 2:18 PM
Obama Hopes to Change Petraeus’s mind
SoCalInfidel on May 29, 2008 at 2:19 PM
You worship at his feet!
dmann on May 29, 2008 at 2:20 PM
There are enough Omamidiots over there to fill a tent…
Hell be fine, some might even faint (from the heat)
Squid Shark on May 29, 2008 at 2:21 PM
you almost sound shocked about that ???
this empty suit dosnt haver the malkins to actually meet with our men and women over seas and ask them face to face “ do you want to win or do you want to surrender” this tool will sell them out the first chance he gets and i think we all know that .
Mojack420 on May 29, 2008 at 2:22 PM
Make it a spectacle, put it on TV let Petraeus and McMaster field questions from McCain and Obama. McCain could destroy the lefts narrative while Obambi looks all the more foolish trying to spin McMaster’s and Petraeus’ answers to fit his narravtive. “Look’s good?” Let’s pull out!”
And McCain should go to Iraq just before or just after Obama does, if Obama meets in private McCain should do it in public, and make sure McMaster is there. Let America hear that Iran is not alledgedly supplying militias, but that all available evidence points directly to Iran supplying militias.
Theworldisnotenough on May 29, 2008 at 2:25 PM
If Barry wins we are all doomed. I have never seen a used car salesman like him since Billy Clinton. At least Billy has skills beyond the talk.
TroubledMonkey on May 29, 2008 at 2:29 PM
I wonder if he would visit Afghanistan, too.
A meeting with Petraeus now would allow him to discuss both theatres, one of which he intends to keep active.
MayBee on May 29, 2008 at 2:35 PM
How about a two-on-one public meeting on national TV between McCain, Obama, and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, with simultaneous translation of whatever Maliki says!
If Maliki knows that McCain advocated the surge that saved Maliki’s butt last year, then hears Obama argue for uncon-ditional surrender, Maliki is likely to either go ballistic against Obama or endorse McCain on national TV. Obama’s “judgment to lead” slogan based on his early opposition to the Iraq war if Iraq’s Prime Minister endorses his opponent!
If Obama cries foul about meeting with foreign leaders for political purposes, McCain can say that he’s only reciprocating for Pelosi’s meeting with Assad…
Steve Z on May 29, 2008 at 2:38 PM
I’m finishing Michael Yon’s book tonight and have “Liberal Fascism” sitting in queue as soon as I’m finished. How did you like it?
Rogue Traveler on May 29, 2008 at 2:39 PM
I wonder how enthusiastic a reception he’d get from not only the troops, but the Iraqi people after saying we need an immediate surrender in Iraq. He might get a free pass and great photo ops in the rural areas where they only know he is an American. I’d love to know what the Iraqi’s who are following the U.S. election think of him and his hopes/dreams.
Rogue Traveler on May 29, 2008 at 2:42 PM
Well, there is that Foreign Relations subcommittee he chairs on Afghanistan. His activity on that may be a hint as to his interest in the country.
a capella on May 29, 2008 at 2:42 PM
If a goes over listens and grandstands after the fact, it would actually be less scary if he’s putting on an act for his true believers. The other option, that he goes over there and willfully decides to ignore everything he sees and hears because his post-election narrative is already set, is really scary to contemplate (though moreso for the people in Iraq he plans to abandon and the rest of the Middle East that will pay the price through instability and renewed terrorism before the U.S. does).
jon1979 on May 29, 2008 at 2:43 PM
“Carefully Remove Them”
So Obama’s acting as Commander-in-Chief,even tho Hillary is still slugging it out in the muck of the Liberal nominee
process,and Obama want a chit chat with Gen.Petraeus !
I hope someone tapes that interview,soundbites an all!
And I hope Obamas surrounded when he’s in Irag,the last
time their was a liberal in Irag,it was CNN who majically
found Liberal Democrats Iragi’s!
Because ya know how thats gonna go,Obama will find some,
maybe one or two Iragi’s who want the American’s to leave,
and CNN will repeat it a million times confirming exactly
what the Moonbats and the DNC wanted to hear!
That will be the next Liberal talking points,and maybe this
is nothing more than “StageCraft*” opportunity for Barack!
(canopfor regrets the use of the term
stagecraft,however its a new term used
by CNN!) :)
canopfor on May 29, 2008 at 3:08 PM
It’s frightening that this is becoming the best we can hope for, for the future of our country. Maybe the naive, surrendering, elitist socialist will somehow learn something that he hasn’t been able to so far in his 46 years.
Of course, this is a guy who sat in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s pews for 20 years and did not notice that he was a virulent racist, Marxist and anti-Semite. This is a guy who believed his uncle liberated Auschwitz while in the American army, although I’m sure that between his posh private high school and the Ivy League universities he attended there must’ve been at least one European map, clearly indicating the geographical location of Poland.
This is a guy who was employed by and with unrepentant actual terrorist William Ayers and didn’t think he was anything other than “a guy from the neighborhood.” This is a guy who accepted financial assistance in buying his home from Tony Rezko, who was under investigation and all over the Chicago papers re financial fraud at the time.
This is a guy who thinks a tea party with Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will solve the world’s problems, just like JFK’s disastrous meeting with Khruschev did.
This is a guy who… yeah you get the picture.
I hope like hell you’re right, AP. Otherwise, we’re in a whole lotta trouble.
Gilda on May 29, 2008 at 3:15 PM
So every democrat who has gone to iraq only did it for a photo op? I can buy that.
peacenprosperity on May 29, 2008 at 3:19 PM
“carefully remove them”
Ever get the impression that Democrats want all our folks in uniform encased in lucite and put on a shelf like so many bisque figurines?
DrSteve on May 29, 2008 at 3:58 PM
If he were responsible and serious, he would go to Iraq to learn what the f*** is going on, since he seems to have no idea.
CP on May 29, 2008 at 4:01 PM
I keep hearing “empty suit” and I have no real disagreement with that assessment, but I don’t know who on this blog to attribute the better description to: “Empty hat”.
Buford Gooch on May 29, 2008 at 4:17 PM
The enemy will be over on the next flight, ready to receive their Z visas.
aengus on May 29, 2008 at 4:29 PM
McCain has succeeded in putting him on defense. Obama knows it and is trying to figure a way to turn the tables on McCain. ***
petefrt on May 29, 2008 at 2:18 PM
But what does this tell you about Iraq? The press narrative is that Iraq is a huge negative for the GOP and a huge plus for Obama. Yet, McCain is being proactive on Iraq and Obama is running like a coward.
I have to give McCain credit – he is a tough old bastard and he does stick to his guns. (E.g., when he told Ellen to her face on her own show that he wouldn’t support gay marriage.)
Outlander on May 29, 2008 at 4:44 PM
Obama’s whole campaign is based on his magic judgment in his, “Dumb War,” speech in 2002. But does that judgment make the grade?
DKK
LifeTrek on May 29, 2008 at 5:26 PM
If Obama goes over there and decides that he can’t just pull out once in office, I don’t really care what he says on the trail. Politics is politics.
BadgerHawk on May 29, 2008 at 7:03 PM
Why would a man who would like to become the Commander in Chief of the world’s greatest military want to go to Iraq??? I mean it really defies imagination…Oh yeah, I get it…We have 150,000 combat troops trying to defeat international terrorism. And, the future CINC might want to see for himself what sacrifices these stout-hearted young warriors are making and what challenges they face in completing the mission their country tasked them sent them to complete…Got it! Do you “get it” Obi-wan?
Nozzle on May 29, 2008 at 9:51 PM
EMPTY SUIT = AN EMPTY HEAD
byteshredder on May 29, 2008 at 10:09 PM
He better take Jim Webb with him.
Travis1 on May 29, 2008 at 10:48 PM
It was one of the best books I have read in a long time. Made me look at terms such as “social justice” in a whole new way.
Trying to find Yons book but no luck here in Japan. Heard it was great though
tottoritodd on May 30, 2008 at 4:35 AM
tottoritodd
Go to his website and order it there.
http://michaelyon-online.com/
It’s required reading for everyone interested in what has been happening for the last 4 years over there. (He’s only been over there for about 4 years so that’s all he comments on.)
Rogue Traveler on May 30, 2008 at 7:36 AM
Allahpundit, the trouble I have with the thought that one on one with Petraeus where he does not have to grandstand is that I cannot imagine Obama NOT shooting off at the mouth like a teenager and grandstanding even in private. That seems to be the type of man he projects himself to be.
{^_^}
herself on May 30, 2008 at 1:22 PM
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