Obama & Clinton on what to do about Iraq
What are the main Democratic candidates actually proposing to do about Iraq (now and in 2009, not retrospectively in 2003)?
Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly makes some points about these matters that seem to me probably correct--at least with respect to Clinton and Obama, though perhaps not Edwards--and that are worth making because they run counter to a lot of conventional wisdom and campaign rhetoric. Since he says them cogently and concisely, there's no point in trying to improve on his formulation.
(See also the piece by William Hartung at Talking Points Memo on which he bases his conclusions and the Washington Post piece to which Hartung refers.)
--Jeff Weintraub
---------------------------
January 17, 2008
WITHDRAWAL .... Over at TPM, William Hartung reviews the bidding and concludes that "this week's Democratic presidential debate underscored the fact that none of the party's frontrunners supports a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq any time soon." He recommends reading the timeline put together by the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs to get a good sense of just where Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama stand on the subject.
Bottom line: although Obama has been consistent in opposing the invasion, he and Hillary have taken pretty similar positions on withdrawal since then. I'd say that's about right, and over the past few months what few disagreements they had have been sanded down even more. I have a very hard time really seeing any daylight between them at this point.
Kevin Drum 3:04 PM
Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly makes some points about these matters that seem to me probably correct--at least with respect to Clinton and Obama, though perhaps not Edwards--and that are worth making because they run counter to a lot of conventional wisdom and campaign rhetoric. Since he says them cogently and concisely, there's no point in trying to improve on his formulation.
(See also the piece by William Hartung at Talking Points Memo on which he bases his conclusions and the Washington Post piece to which Hartung refers.)
--Jeff Weintraub
---------------------------
January 17, 2008
WITHDRAWAL .... Over at TPM, William Hartung reviews the bidding and concludes that "this week's Democratic presidential debate underscored the fact that none of the party's frontrunners supports a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq any time soon." He recommends reading the timeline put together by the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs to get a good sense of just where Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama stand on the subject.
Bottom line: although Obama has been consistent in opposing the invasion, he and Hillary have taken pretty similar positions on withdrawal since then. I'd say that's about right, and over the past few months what few disagreements they had have been sanded down even more. I have a very hard time really seeing any daylight between them at this point.
Kevin Drum 3:04 PM
posted by Jeff Weintraub at 9:49 PM
<< Home