http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/04/obama-surge-succeeded-beyond-wildest-dreams/ The troop surge in Iraq has been more successful than anyone could have imagined, Barack Obama conceded Thursday in his first-ever interview on FOX News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.” As recently as July, the Democratic presidential candidate declined to rate the surge a success, but said it had helped reduce violence in the country. On Thursday, Obama acknowledged the 2007 increase in U.S. troops has benefited the Iraqi people. “I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.” However, he added, the country has not had enough “political reconciliation” and Iraqis still have not taken responsibility for their country. “We have gone through five years of mismanagement of this war that I thought was disastrous, and the president wanted to double down and continue an open-ended policy (that did not put pressure on the Iraqi government),” he said. Speaking on other national security matters, Obama said he would not take military action off the table in dealing with Iran, but diplomacy and sanctions can’t be overlooked. The Islamic republic is a “major threat” and it would be “unacceptable” for the rogue nation to develop a nuclear weapon, he said. “It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon, it would be a game changer,” Obama said. “It’s sufficient to say I would not take military action off the table and that I will never hesitate to use our military force in order to protect the homeland and the United States’ interests.” But Obama warned against the current U.S. administration lumping radical Islamic groups together. “They have fueled a whole host of terrorist organizations,” Obama said of Iran, but “we have to have the ability to distinguish between groups. … They may not all be part and parcel of the same ideology.” Obama sat down with O’Reilly in York, Pa., after holding a discussion on the economy with voters nearby. The Illinois senator has been campaigning in battleground states since accepting the Democratic presidential nomination last Thursday at his party’s convention in Denver. John McCain was formally chosen as the Republican presidential nominee Wednesday in St. Paul. Obama also told FOX News Thursday he “absolutely” believes the United States is fighting a War on Terror, with the enemy being, “Al Qaeda, the Taliban, a whole host of networks that are bent on attacking America, who have a distorted ideology, who have perverted the faith of Islam.” He repeated his campaign’s foreign policy position that Afghanistan must become the “central front” in the War on Terror. Obama was first asked to come on “The O’Reilly Factor” in early 2007. The interview will air in three more parts, at 8 p.m. ET Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Quite an admission. His own words can be used to thwart the "judgment" argument he makes (he was wrong about the surge). Score for O'Reilly. When I first opened the WWW page, I thought Obama was trying to steal some of McCain's thunder (fair is fair) during the convention or shortly after. Next week is more time than McCain took to announce Palin as his VP.
Hate him or love him, O'Reilly knows how to do an interview and ask tough questions. No wonder why Obama ducked him for so long.
Barry can still make the case he had the best judgment on this issue. A surge alone doesn't guarantee these results, various serendipitous factors culminated in order for our success to occur. Comparing that to the tangible/intangible cost would make a respectable case to the American people.
If that was true, then why didn't he admit the surge worked earlier instead of denying it for the entire campaign?
No amount of ridiculous explanation is necessary for Obama. He was wrong, he knows it. If Obama had his way things could be going even worse in Iraq and the probability that we'd be handing the country over to islamic radicalism in a very short time would be highly likely. Then again, can we expect a community organizer with no service to really understand how effective our military can be when their hands aren't tied behind their backs?
Chris Matthews had a good line about Obama and McCain, particularly their performances at that one religious forum. "McCain grabs the question and answers it, Obama 'handles' the question." This is a perfect case of handling the question (answering it with a lot of words and dancing around the answer) vs. grabbing it (hey, I'm wrong, I admit it, let's move on.)
^^John Stewart made a similar comment about President Bush. Just watch the first 65 seconds to get the point. [video=youtube;uxsXHXIErHQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxsXHXIErHQ[/video]
Bush running for a 3rd term? Didn't realize that was allowed, lol. What a wild misinterpretation. I wasn't even comparing Bush to McCain, in fact it was more likely that I would have been comparing Bush to Obama. Based on Chris Matthew's statement Obama tactics are similar to Bush's according to John Stewart. It was just a tv clip I remembered after reading your post, no more and no less. Learn to take things at face value, it starts to get obnoxious.
Your simplification of the situation was not sufficient. Obama is indeed dancing around this topic, yet he still has valid points.
