A quote inside an Associated Press story about an Obama campaign stop in New Hampshire sheds new light on Kos' anti-Obama flame, which many on this community lapped up so hungrily. Obama supports the short term funding supplemental policy that certain Blue Dogs have been floating.
According to the Associated Press' Holly Ramer, in an article about an Obama stop at the Peterborough Diner in Peterborough, New Hampshire, Obama was asked very directly by a supporter what the congress planned to do if the president vetoed the bill:
He struck a more serious note when an adult customer asked what Congress would do if President Bush vetoes the Iraq war spending bill because it includes a timetable for withdrawing American troops.
Obama said Congress should continue to put pressure on the president but said the troops must be given the proper support to carry out their mission.
"What we might do is look at a bill giving a short-term appropriation," Obama said. "And keep the president on a shorter leash."
Interesting.
Will Kos and other front page posters continue to repeat the Obama smear, in a cynical attempt to paint Obama, a man who was very much against this war when it was unpopular to be so, as "surrendering" to Bush?
This temptation to ignore over four years of context on an issue to condemn a man on one quote couched in paraphrase by a reporter is something that has to be stood up to here if this blog is going to live up to its "reality-based" pedigree.
Anything else is just Rovism in a blue shirt.
Obama has stood up against this war and for our young men and women in uniform at every turn, even when other prominent democrats were not. We should have given him the benefit of the doubt. I hope we all will now.
UPDATE!!!
The article has been updated to reflect Obama's later comments at Keene State College.
The Illinois senator said anyone who questions whether he has the necessary "seasoning" to be president should read a speech he delivered five months before the war began.
"I recommend the speech not so much so I can say 'I told you so,' so much as to get a sense of the judgment I bring to bear on foreign policy issues, because I anticipated most of the problems, if not all the problems we've confronted since we got there," he told more than 1,000 people at Keene State College.
The House and Senate recently passed Iraq war spending bills that include timetables for withdrawing troops from Iraq but President Bush has promised to veto the measure. While rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton challenged Bush to work with Congress instead of vetoing the bill, Obama appeared to consider the veto a done deal.
"When he vetoes that bill, we are going to have to go back and say what are the other ways we can ratchet up the pressure on the president," he said. "There are a whole range of options. We could say, OK, we're going to fund the war in three-month increments and keep you on a shorter leash, or we're going to try to constrain you and let you veto the bill again."