Dispute over Obama troop withdrawal

Posted: Monday, January 21, 2008 10:04 PM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
The Obama campaign would like a correction on a previous post that said his position on troop withdrawal doesn't reflect his position that it could take 16 months to withdraw troops, a fact that he repeated over and over on the stump between September and the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3rd.

Per spokeswoman Jen Psaki: "Projections are that we will tart 2009 with 10 to 15 brigades in Iraq, meaning that you could get those remaining briages out by the end of 2009."

However, the goal of getting troops out by 2009 is a line that Obama has slipped into his stump speeches, and does not reflect previous statements on the stump when he was doing town halls throughout Iowa and New Hampshire. During those fall and winter months, Obama repeatedly said that he wanted to be "as careful getting out as we were careless getting in" and reassured voters that the withdrawal would take time, would be careful and take humanitarian and security concerns into consideration and that it could take up to two and half to three years.

Perhaps intelligence estimates have changed since then, but then the campaign should make more of an effort to make the press aware of them rather than just changing a standard part of his stump speech and a policy position without notification.

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Comments

Are you serious? You're mad that they updated a previous statement from the Fall and Winter, without notifying YOU? Isn't it your job to keep abreast of these types of things and check them as they come instead of blaming them for not notifying you ahead of time?

clarence, atlanta, ga (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 10:11 PM)

Domenico,

What are you talking about? I've heard him use the 2009 line for quite some time. "Without notification??" Maybe you should pay attention and not expect the campaigns to hand everything to you on a silver platter. You sound bitter because you were corrected.

Uzoma (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 10:20 PM)

I agree with Domenico. Candidates should start doing the media's job for the media. I mean, heave forfend we expect our media to keep up to date on the facts on the ground in Iraq before they go out and claim someone lied about those facts.

deekerj (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 10:38 PM)

Seems he was pandering to the blacks? Your kidding me right? He is a human being with a sense of humor which you seem to lack and try to read something into nothing. Give me a break, I want a real president, a person more like me than like stuffed shirt individuals always calculating every word that comes out of their mouth.

Hawkeye from Iowa (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 10:44 PM)

Perhaps your notification is to listen to the speech.

Nashville_fan (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 10:47 PM)

Barack had the most solid answer, maybe Billary
can pull the guts out of military again,and we
can possible have the strength to go tote to toe
with mexico, ya Draft dodger in Chief II

Bob Alaska (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 10:50 PM)

c'mon...have we gotten so lost in the politics that a person--any person, not just a candidate--can't speak like an American? Part of Obama's appeal is the ability to speak as we all speak on a daily basis to friends and co-workers. He's not a robotic politician. That is to be celebrated, I think. It was a funny line and the audience got it.

michael husain (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 11:06 PM)

I was wondering the same thing. Thanks for your acurate report here. I thought I was missing something which I thought was not he said before.
Obama does have this kind of the problem. He really needs to stay on what he said, not not keep changing afraid of being caught.

AB (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 11:18 PM)

Oh, Aswini, please...
"Perhaps intelligence estimates have changed since then, but then the campaign should make more of an effort to make the press aware of them rather than just changing a standard part of his stump speech and a policy position without notification. "

Girlfriend, did you even bother to ask? Were you not paying attention? I know being out on the stump is tiring, but please...

jade7243 (Sent Monday, January 21, 2008 11:43 PM)

Seriously, Domenico? Why do you get paid to do your job if you think it's the candidates' job to report changes in the real world? No wonder Billary are able to inject the nonsense they've been putting out there into the campaign. Yeesh!

Guy LeCharles Gonzales (Sent Tuesday, January 22, 2008 2:03 AM)

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