Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Obama Policy Speech

Barack Obama made his first real policy speech since throwing his name into the Democratic presidential ring for '08. His talk yesterday at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs covered everything on Iraq, and clearly set up Obama to try to grab the Dem anti-war vote from any other Dem, including Hillary. In the speech, Obama pulled a turnaround from some of his earlier positions on Iraq, now urging that US troops be withdrawn from Iraq starting in 6 months.

"Our troops can help suppress the violence, but they cannot solve its root causes," Obama told members of the council. "And all the troops in the world won't be able to force Shia, Sunni, and Kurd to sit down at a table, resolve their differences, and forge a lasting peace."

Obama had been considered a war supporter when he first burst into the Senate in '04, and was denounced as a neo-con hawk by the anti-war left after several tough comments on Iran that seemingly backed the idea of bombing the Mullahs to prevent them from getting nukes.

Will this be seen as a Kerryesque flip-flop? No, because most still view Obama as a political greenhorn. But you never know what the GOP will throw at him if he gets the nomination in '08.

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