Democratic Party Presidential Aspirants Hemming and Hawing
It is business as usual for the would-be Presidents. As we have been saying for months and months, perhaps even years and years, all the DNC proponents are interested in is political power, National Security be damned.
The Senate, by unanimous vote, approved of General Petraeus and his Plan To Win In Iraq. Shortly thereafter, the DNCites and their counterparts in the RINO class began their usual bait and switch and pandering to the vastly outnumbered moonbats.
So beleaguered the DNCites are by the latest testimonies of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and the evident and confirmed successes of The Surge, they have found themselves admitting that they cannot fulfill their "original"(?) campaign promises. We all knew it, they knew it, The Lame Stream Media knew it but, it didn't matter. All that mattered was political posturing for political gain.
From The Captain:
How far has General David Petraeus moved the debate on Iraq? His testimony on the surge, and the effects of the surge itself, has made it much more difficult for Democrats to argue for withdrawal and defeat. In fact, at last night's debate, the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination couldn't even commit to a withdrawal -- by 2013:
[...]
The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013."I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state.
"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
"I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
[...]
Imagine that.
The Washington Monthly:
WITHDRAWAL....Why were all three of the leading Dem candidates at last night's debate unwilling to promise a full withdrawal from Iraq by 2013? James Joyner takes a guess:
There's no doubt that the major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination are reluctant to give a firm commitment on withdrawing troops from Iraq. The reason, I suspect, is that there's a vast difference in running for president and running for Congress. Those with a plausible chance of being elected Commander in Chief have much less luxury to be glib and reactionary in their foreign policy pronouncements, since they would actually have to execute those policies upon taking office.
I don't think this holds water. Candidates make promises all the time and then break them. And this one is even easier to break than most: there are certain to be dozens of events over the next four years that will provide a president with a perfectly plausible excuse to stay in Iraq even if he or she had promised otherwise during the campaign.
I agree to disagree to disagree to agree.
What?
Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters says it best: "Petraeus Moved the Debate."
Democratic presidential candidates changed their rhetoric ever so slightly in last night's debate: Obama, Clinton, and Edwards won't commit to pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2013, the end of their first presidential term if elected. Democrats can no longer ignore the fact that progress is being made in Iraq, and bloggers attribute this change directly to General Petraeus's testimony.
According to Morrissey, Petraeus’s “testimony on the surge, and the effects of the surge itself, has made it much more difficult for Democrats to argue for withdrawal and defeat,” simply because “Americans don't like to lose wars, and given the successes that Petraeus has generated, more Americans see an opportunity to persevere in Iraq.”
Ace of Spades outlines the Democrats’ comments, and it is clear that they are in no hurry to withdraw.
Michelle Malkin agrees, and asks these Democrats, “Maybe that White Flag wasn’t such a terrific prop after all, eh?”
Bryan at Hot Air correctly states that the “Netroots ain’t gonna like this.” Of course not. DailyKos, MoveOn.org, and the rest of the antiwar crowd have been calling for immediate withdrawal. Who is “betraying” them now?
Confederate Yankee notes, "What we may--and I caution, may--be witnessing here is a bursting of the progressive blogosphere's image of its influence over the rest of the Democratic Party." Hopefully!
The Oxford Medievalist wryly says, “it looks like not only Hillary, but the other major Democratic candidates as well, have 'willingly suspended disbelief.'" But more importantly, “The fact is the surge is working - we are making enough progress in Iraq for most sensible people to justify continuing and, not only are Democrats powerless to force a surrender, even the Democratic presidential front-runners realize the new reality.”
The Leftinistra are in deep trouble. At first, they were counting on the MoveOn cretins to do their dirty work for them and when it backfired, now they are being forced to actually take a stand on an issue, albeit they are standing in quicksand.
Based upon their statements in last night's Democratic Presidential debate, the leading candidates have surrendered the thought of a near-term military pullout from Iraq.
The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013.
While they did discuss other things at the debate, the Democratic candidates statements about Iraq is what made the head lines all over.
It is easy to make campaign promises of "we will change things" but once someone delves a bit deeper and finally asks them "How?, it becomes a whole new ballgame and finally they start admitting that conditions on the ground is the most relevant issue in making those decisions.
As the smoke clears, it will be shown that the defeatists within all rank and file politicians are exactly that...defeatists and people that do not understand what this war we are in TOGETHER is all about. It is quite simple. Then again, God uses the simple things to confound the wise.
Catch the wave
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