Obama to Change His Stance On Iraq?

Barack Obama may find himself in hot water with his party as its been reported that Obama is considering a change in his original stance to start pulling troops out of Iraq in January 2009.  Considering Barack just caused a bit of an up roar and at the very least raised a few eye brows at his flip flop on public campaign funding this looks to be the start of a character issue for Obama.

The problem with Obama flip flopping on such a dynamic and key issue for his campaign and for the future direction of this country is that he starts sounding less and less like a fresh new face and an embodiment of “Hope” and “Change” and more like politics as usual. 

The GOP is currently in shambles with McCain not doing himself any favors but we all saw how being labeled as an elitist snob and flip flopper negatively effected John Kerry’s campaign.  This election is starting to look less like the best candidate will win and more like the last man standing.

The bottom line here is you can’t tell Americans “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election,” and then do the opposite.  You can’t tell Americans that you, “would require that troops begin coming home on May 1 with the goal of removing all combat brigades by March 31, 2008,” or at the worst by the end of 2008 and then do the opposite.

Obama’s stance on Iraq is looking more like politics as usual especially when you start to examine the evolution of his stance on Iraq.  It took him almost a year to deliver a speech on Iraq once he got to Washington (this was a centerpiece of his Senatorial campaign) and “only after Mr. Obama opened a presidential exploratory committee did he introduce legislation to withdraw American combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008.”  Why the wait?

I am in agreement with Obama.  He should change his stance on Iraq.  It doesn’t make sense to invest a few trillion dollars in the future of a whole region of the world and then just walk away because we shouldn’t have been there in the first place.  We’re there now and we need to figure out the best way to secure the region and then leave.  But you can’t be against the war and campaign on pulling out our troops to separate yourself from the pack and then change your stance after you have secured the nomination and think that no one will notice.