All due respect etc, he’s just saying what he’s always said, and the media are jamming it into their latest narrative on Obama.

BTW: “Backtrack Obama”? Nice one. Democrats are such beautiful losers.

Yeah, all due respect Frank ... but there’s more than one data point in play here: FISA, for example ... and frankly, I don’t like the nominee out there talking about doling out public cash to religious nutballs. I’ll still vote for him; Iraq, FISA, faith-based bullshit notwithstanding, since a backtracking Obama is still better than McCain.

By the way, dude, here’s your same source talking about Obama’s backslide on FISA.

I’m not defending Obama on FISA; I thing it’s a sell-out. He may have good arguments for doing what he’s doing, but those arguments are political and not constitutional, and he’s being a tad disingenuous to claim otherwise—although I strongly believe he can’t publicly make the political argument.

That said, a whole lot of lefty bloggers are buying right into a media-spun narrative about Obama’s shifting position on Iraq (which I thought was the subject of your post). As I recall, he said was going to be cautious about withdrawal as far back as November last year, and has repeated the point more than a few times. I’m a little disturbed that so many lefties are so eager to slap right-wing memes on Obama.

And no, this isn’t about closing down criticism of Obama. It’s about not being led by the nose by the media and the right wing.

Frank, the media isn’t going to vote on FISA, Obama is, and the man is clearly ready to betray the constitution and every American citizen when he does. Your source carefully documented that and it shows that Obama will shift for political expediency.

Obama is now making his move to align his withdrawal position with what constitutes a more serious media narrative: that everything in Iraq is coming up roses, and pulling out precipitously might ruin the great progress. One can sense how Obama might feel snookered on this, since his opponent and the media are saying his judgment was wrong about the surge.

So, the idea of reacting to narratives cuts both ways. Just because Greg Sargent says the above is a media narrative, doesn’t mean Obama isn’t actually doing what the narrative suggests. And it doesn’t mean there aren’t other narratives that people see or that Obama is reacting to.

Poputonian,
I have to disagree with your assertion that Obama is being “snookered” on this issue. I have never supported this war, but I also think withdrawing without considering how to lessen the negative impact is short-sighted. Ideologues got us into this war, and their belief that everything would be roses and unicorns resulted in horrible mismanagement. I don’t want the same kind of ideological blindness to dictate our withdrawal policy, even if the ideology lines up with my own.

T - I don’t disagree with you. Obama was, however, arguing for timetable driven withdrawal before. I’m just calling him on his bullshit because of his failure to hold on the FISA deal.

I suppose I never took the 16 month timetable that seriously. It seemed like a textbook case of an election promise destined to be modified by reality. I was honestly relieved that Obama seemed willing to bend a bit, especially in light of the “stay the course” B.S. of the last 7+ years.

The FISA reversal, on the other hand, is a politically cowardly move. Obama deserves to be criticized for it.

So, let me get this straight, he was against the bill before. If the bill was changed is it still back tracking?