Sunday, July 06, 2008

Thats Not What I Meant

Regarding his remarks about departure from Iraq, Obama's

a) adding clarity, detail, and precision
b) fuzzing his remarks to avoid ticking off some people now while gaining others
c) graying his remarks to give himself more wiggle room for if and when he has to actually act on them
d) all of the above

As eloquent as he is, he's still a politician, and politicians tend to like broad oratorical flourishes that don't play out well when you're in the Oval Office and you have to actually make it work. He's made broad oratorical statements, and now it begins to look like maybe he might have to deliver on them, so he's backing, just a bit. Maybe more than just a bit. He's recognizing that he can't still stand for 'we're going to leave thirty minutes after I get sworn in', because people are going to hold him to that. Some of them will be for him, some against, some neutral, but they'll have this in common: the phrase but you SAID...

S
ome would call that waffling, which isn't inherently bad, but I don't think its what he's doing. But he can't do it very much, or he begins to look sneaky. Shaky. Political.

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