Creating a record even for himself on flip flopping positions, Barack Obama has said that after visiting Iraq he may "redefine" his Iraq timeline.
I remember when ABC spoke of the flip flops that Obama made on Iran, they described them as his "evolving" positions, now we see The Politico, using the term "refine".
News for people, a rose is a rose no matter what you choose to call it, and flip flopping is flip flopping no matter what term you use to describe it.
That isn't the best thing though, the best part of this, is that made one statement, and then he flipped on his own flop... this HAS to be a record for him.
First a reminder of what Obama has on his own site about timelines:
Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.
Press Iraq’s Leaders to Reconcile
Now the statement reported on today:
"My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I've said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe," Obama told reporters as his campaign plane landed in North Dakota. "And my guiding approach continues to be that we've got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable. And I'm going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold."
Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has long said the nation "must be as careful getting out of Iraq as it was reckless going in," but during his hard-fought primary fight with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he stuck to a timeline that foresaw withdrawing one to two combat brigades from Iraq a month.
In recent weeks, Republicans and some Democratic-leaning military experts have said conditions have changed so dramatically that Obama would have to rethink that goal. His own advisers have sent mixed messages. Sen. Claire C. McCaskill (D-Mo.), a strong Obama supporter, has firmly maintained he has not shifted on Iraq at all. But foreign policy adviser Susan Rice, in recent days, appeared to take a more flexible approach.
He ends it with a flourish, saying, "I have always said I would listen to the commanders on the ground. I have always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability. That assessment has not changed. When I go to Iraq and have time to talk to the commanders on the ground, I'm sure I'll have more information."
The howling did not take long to start from his own supporters.
The Republican National Committee has already started having a little fun with Obama and have set up "Obama’s Iraq Guessing Game", with a variety of statements made by Obama and his campaign aides and/or staff.
The howling from the left must have been heard because Obama quickly put together another news conference so he could do a quick back flip while flipping his flop:
“I have said throughout this campaign that this war was ill-conceived,” Mr. Obama said. “That it was a strategic blunder and that it needs to come to an end. I have also said that I would be deliberate and careful in how we got out. That I would bring our troops home at a pace of one to two brigades a month and at that pace we would have our combat troops out in 16 months. That position has not changed. I have not equivocated on that position. I am not searching for maneuvering room with respect to that position.”
More from Top of the Ticket.
UPDATE: McCain spokesman Brian Rogers says that Obama "has now adopted John McCain's position that we cannot risk the progress we have made in Iraq by beginning to withdraw our troops immediately without concern for conditions on the ground. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind when the facts on the ground dictate it. Indeed, the facts have changed because of the success of the surge that John McCain advocated for years and Barack Obama opposed in a position that put politics ahead of country.
"Now that Barack Obama has changed course and proven his past positions to be just empty words, we would like to congratulate him for accepting John McCain's principled stand on this critical national security issue. If he had visited Iraq sooner or actually had a one-on-one meeting with General Petraeus, he would have changed his position long ago."
This constant gymnastics routine of Obamas, with regards to Iran, FISA, the Second Amendment and gun bans, public financing, now Iraq, etc.... has made him a laughingstock.
He is being criticized by the right, the media, the left.... he has become a joke.
Hillary must be kicked back smirking right about now because she did warn everyone that he wasn't all that and a bag of chips and when all is said and done, if the Superdelegates actually hand him the official nomination in Denver in August and he loses the November election... Hillary Clinton will have but four words for everyone.
I. Told. You. So.
She did too.
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