Exclusive: Friday, July 18

by PRESIDENTIAL WATCH July 18, 2008

Barack Obama & the Democratic Affliction

Editors, NRO.com

I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse: I think it takes pressure off the Iraqis to arrive at the sort of political accommodation that every observer believes is the ultimate solution to the problems we face there. . And the problem is the Iraqis, I think, take that message to mean that, no matter how little they are compromising with each other, Americans are still going to be present. As long as we are not willing to provide any consequences to failure for them to arrive at a political compromise, we're going to continue to see the sort of sectarian bloodshed that's been evident over the last several months.

- Barack Obama, January 2007, in response to President Bush's speech announcing the surge.

It's bizarre to see an American political party so afflicted by American military success. The Democrats have been laboring to look the other way from the security gains forged by the troop surge in Iraq, but now the progress is so widely acknowledged that they have had to change tack. Sen. Obama's advisers have taken to saying that the Illinois senator knew all along the surge would improve security, an obvious falsehood (see the quote above). Old Cold Warriors will recall this trick from the end of the Soviet Union - as soon as we had won the Cold War, opponents of our winning efforts said they had favored it all along.

We haven't won the Iraq war, of course, which is why the debate over it is so consequential. Obama took to the pages of the New York Times Monday to explain, "My Plan for Iraq." He reiterated his support for a 16-month pullout. We think - and certainly hope - that somewhere deep inside Obama realizes how unworkable and risky this timeline would be. A report by Martha Raddatz of ABC News last week cited U.S. commanders to the effect that the plan might not even be logistically possible.

In recent weeks, Obama has given signals that he wants to be able to wiggle out of the 16-month deadline. He famously talked of "refining" his plan earlier in the month, and his chief strategist David Axelrod told CNN Obama's plan was for "a phased withdrawal, with benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet, that called for strategic pauses, based on the progress on these benchmarks and advice on the commanders on the ground."

This was getting dangerously close to another "flip-flop," this time on an issue that was central to Obama's primary campaign and his political identity. Read article.

Why Obama will fail!

Sand Monkey.org

First of all, before we get into this, let me say how happy I am with the selection of both Obama and McCain as the presumptive nominees of the republican and the democratic parties, and that's not just because I Predicted they would be it when Clinton was the lock-in nominee and McCain was lagging behind all of his compatriots. I am happy because both men are not the conventional nominees of their parties, and they are more interested in creating common ground with the other side's voter bloc than they are in pandering to their base. Ok, now that we got that out of the way, let's actually examine them a little bit.

I guess I am going to have to go into detail to why exactly I believe that Obama will fail.

You see, if you ask any Obama supporter, they will tell you that they are supporting the man because he gives them hope. Now, Oscar Wilde once said that the basis of all hope is fear, and I intend to agree with Wilde on that one. So what exactly are the Obama supporters afraid of?

Well, it's really simple, after 8 years of Bush, and of having the government repeatedly inform them that they are living in a threatening world that doesn't like them (which, by the way, is true, and it disliked them during Clinton's presidency too I may add) and that they are going to have to hunker down, get though and prepare to fight this for the long haul, they are afraid that this is really the way the world is.

Enter Obama, who tells them in all kinds of inspiring fashion that this isn't necessarily true, that the world isn't really dangerous and that all we need to do is to talk to one another, and then all will be well in the world and we will all sing Kumbaya together. So, desperate and clinging to anything, they believe him, because the alternative is so scary, so stressful and depressing, that they may have to up their Zoloft dosage , and anti-depressants are really expensive nowadays. Read article.

Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Plan May Prove Difficult: Commanders see logistical nightmare

Martha Raddatz, ABC News.com

Whatever nuance Barack Obama is now adding to his Iraq withdrawal strategy, the core plan on his Web site is as plain as day: Obama would "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."

It is a plan that, no doubt, helped Obama get his party's nomination, but one that may prove difficult if he is elected president.

Military personnel in Iraq are following the presidential race closely, especially when it comes to Iraq.

The soldiers and commanders we spoke to will not engage in political conversation or talk about any particular candidate, but they had some strong opinions about the military mission which they are trying to accomplish, and the dramatic security gains they have made in the past few months. Read article.

Obama's Achilles' Heel Is Obama

John L. Perry, NewsMax.com

Course-reversals by Barack Obama are eroding his policy differences with John McCain. Ironically, that is the very briar patch McCain might hope to land in.

If the main issue is not to be Obama versus McCain over policies, then the default issue is Obama as Obama. It can be Obama's ultimate undoing, and McCain's best chance of emerging as the lesser of two dissatisfying candidates.

Behold Obama's recklessness: Having cinched the Democratic Party's presidential nomination - barring some new horror still lurking in his closet - Obama is navigating ever closer to the middle of the American mainstream.

With a straight face, he has pirouetted on the threats from Iran and North Korea, when to quit Iraq, policy toward Israel, free trade, the death penalty, banning guns, welfare reform, faith-based initiatives . . . more will surely come.

He'd not be twirling like this if he felt in serious danger of losing the radical left, which has become the base, and demonstrably in control, of his party. Read article.

Tacking to the Center Is Tacky

Tony Blankley, Townhall.com

From Australia to London to almost all points in between, if there are two things people know about Barack Obama, one of them is that he recently has changed his positions on abortion, gun control, capital punishment, FISA laws, the status of Jerusalem, faith-based federal programs, public financing of his campaign, welfare, NAFTA and free trade, the surge in Iraq, and his commitment to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his Trinity Church, among other public policies.

But it is said by his supporters -- and readily acknowledged by most public commentators -- that this is what candidates for president routinely do. If Republicans, they run to the right in the primary and run to the center in the general election. If Democrats, they run to the left in the primary and then to the center in the general. This is the policy version of the cynical Clinton defense: Everybody does it. But we all know about the run to the center in presidential general elections.

I am not aware of anything remotely comparable to Sen. Obama's recent reversals of positions. To my knowledge, it is without moral precedent in modern American presidential elections. It is an act of political cynicism, compounded in its audacity by Sen. Obama's explicit claim to being above politics as usual.

This election season is getting interesting. Obama seems to have opened himself up to Dr. Samuel Johnson's famous admonition: "Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of virtue; they discourse like angels, but they live like men." Read article.

Ashamed of America?

David Limbaugh, JWR.com

Some say Obama's critics have taken their eye off the ball in focusing on his associations with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, thus giving his far-left policies a pass. But that's a false choice.

Those criticisms would have more validity but for the fact that Obama's associations and his approach to policy are inextricably intertwined, flowing from a particular - and consistent - mindset.

It's no accident that Obama sat for 20 years and had his children baptized in a church whose pastor revved up his congregation by denouncing America with expletives, that he had a working relationship with a professor who expressed pride in his past anti-American terrorism, or even that his wife admitted a first-time pride in the United States with the advent of her husband's electoral success.

Repeated references to Obama's close connections with these people and others are not drive-by attacks designed to incriminate Obama merely by association. Their purpose is to shine a spotlight on Obama to help determine whether he embraces or is sympathetic to the same negative views about America as his soul mates.

When you couple Obama's associations with his many statements and policies, a disturbing picture emerges, suggesting Obama might lack a robust pride in America. Read article.

Actor pins hopes on victory for Obama

Ruadhan McCormaic, Irish Times.com

If Barack Obama doesn't win November's presidential election in the United States, "you can kiss the Democratic Party goodbye", the actor and director Robert Redford told an audience in Dublin last night.

Speaking at a public interview in Trinity College in advance of his conferral with an honorary degree by the university today, Redford said he hoped Obama would win because while John McCain "represents yesterday", the Democrat embodied the sort of change America needed.

Asked by Michael Dwyer, film correspondent of The Irish Times , if he was looking forward to "regime change" in the US, Redford said: "Yes. Where my country is at the moment, I'm not confident of anything. I'm hopeful.

"I think Obama is not tall on experience . . . but I believe he's a really good person. He's smart. And he does represent what the country needs most now, which is change.

"I hope he'll win. I think he will. If he doesn't, you can kiss the Democratic Party goodbye. I think we need new voices, new blood. We need to get a whole group out, get a new group in." Read article.

Obama's Enigma

David Broder, RCP.com

John McCain is the candidate who actually had experience as a wartime flyer, but Barack Obama is the one who has most successfully adapted a favorite tactic of those intrepid aviators. When the pilots were over a target heavily defended by anti-aircraft guns, they would release a cloud of fine metal scraps, hoping to confuse the aim of the shells or missiles being fired in their direction.

In the weeks since he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, the Illinois senator has done a similar trick, throwing out verbal hints of altered positions on any number of issues. This is creating quandaries for the Republicans who can't figure out where to aim.

Last week, the Republican National Committee, in a statement cataloguing some half-dozen recent Obama "flip-flops," threw up its hands without offering answers. The McCain campaign issued its own list of Obama's changed positions totaling 17 items, but confessed that "nobody knows what Barack Obama truly believes."

I can do no better, and I confess that it is only speculation to suggest that Obama's recent performance is motivated by a desire to confuse the opposition. Obama is making it hard for the Republicans to figure out how to attack him. The risk for him is if he also frustrates those voters' need to understand what makes him tick. They don't elect enigmas to the Oval Office. Read article.

Obama's Liberal Shock Troops

John Fund, Online WSJ.com

While he is a skilled candidate, Barack Obama's ability to surprise, stun and sweep over the vaunted Clinton Machine to capture the Democratic nomination was rooted in his background as a community organizer. He's now turning those skills to the general election.

But liberals aren't just on the march on the presidential level. This year, liberal activists are spending parts of the fortunes of their wealthy donors to transform politics at the state and local level.

In 2005, billionaire investor George Soros convened a group of 70 super-rich liberal donors in Phoenix to evaluate why their efforts to defeat President Bush had failed. One conclusion was that they needed to step up their long-term efforts to dominate key battleground states. The donors formed a group called Democracy Alliance to make grants in four areas: media, ideas, leadership and civic engagement. Since then, Democracy Alliance partners have donated over $100 million to key progressive organizations. Read article.

Democrats, the military, and McCain

Jeff Jacoby, Boston.com

Four years ago, ago, Democrats couldn't laud military service - especially that of their presidential standard-bearer - highly enough. John Kerry's short stint in Vietnam was repeatedly invoked as evidence of his character and fitness for leadership. "If you have any question about what John Kerry's made of," his running mate John Edwards would say, "just spend three minutes with the men who served with him 30 years ago."

At the Democratic National Convention in Boston, photographs of Kerry's Navy days abounded - Kerry posing with his officer class, Kerry on the Mekong Delta, Kerry receiving a medal. One of the convention's speakers was a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who praised Kerry's "bravery and great distinction" as a naval officer.

Given that effusive show of respect for military experience in 2004, you would think no Democrat this year could even contemplate disparaging John McCain's far more extensive military career. The presumptive Republican nominee, after all, spent 22 years as a naval aviator; flew 23 combat missions over North Vietnam; earned numerous combat decorations, including the Silver Star and Legion of Merit; and demonstrated courage and self-sacrifice during five years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.

Yet in recent months, one Democrat after another has gone out of his way to diminish or criticize McCain's war record. Read article.

Obama under fire over Afghan 'insult'

Stephen Collinson, Daily Telegraph.au

White House hopeful Barack Obama has said the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai has not "gotten out of the bunker" to rebuild the war-torn country.

Senator Obama also said in an interview with CNN, to be broadcast in full this weekend, that the Bush administration had allowed al-Qaeda and the Taliban to regroup, by diverting vital US forces to the war in Iraq.

Senator Obama's Republican foes accused him of ignoring multiple assassination attempts against Karzai, and of offending a vital US ally.

"Obama has never visited Afghanistan to meet our allies on the ground, yet he is audacious enough to assert that President Karzai has not gotten 'out of the bunker.' Read article.

Is Obama's Glow Fading?

Jonathan Darman, Newsweek.com

The latest Newsweek Poll shows Barack Obama leading John McCain by only 3 points. What a difference a few weeks can make.

Obama's rapid drop comes at a strategically challenging moment for the Democratic candidate. Having vanquished Hillary Clinton in early June, Obama quickly went about repositioning himself for a general-election audience--an unpleasant task for any nominee emerging from the pander-heavy primary contests and particularly for a candidate who'd slogged through a vigorous primary challenge in most every contest from January until June. Obama's reversal on FISA legislation, his support of faith-based initiatives and his decision to opt out of the campaign public-financing system left him open to charges he was a flip-flopper. In the new poll, 53 percent of voters (and 50 percent of former Hillary Clinton supporters) believe that Obama has changed his position on key issues in order to gain political advantage. Read article.

Obama Won't Commit to Event at Military Base

Kate Zernike, NY Times.com

A coalition of military groups is planning a nationally televised town-hall-style meeting with the presidential candidates near Fort Hood, Tex., the largest active-duty military installation in the country. But so far, only Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, has agreed to attend.

CBS has agreed to broadcast the meeting live from 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Aug. 11. The candidates would face questions directly from an audience of 6,000 people, made up of veterans, service members and military families from the base.

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has not agreed to participate, citing a previously scheduled event. Read article.