Obama: I did not campaign on the public option

[Admiral Yi]

How so? I remember Republicans during the general election attacking Obama because he was too bellicose when it came to prosecuting the war against the Taliban in Waziristan.

Off the top of my head I don't remember the exact wording of Obama's campaign promises about Afghanistan but I'm pretty sure he didn't say he would be pulling out in 18 months.

[Sheilbh]

That's being charitable.

If elected, Obama says, he would immediately withdraw thousands of ground troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan to help undermanned US forces defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

"It's time to refocus our attention on the war we have to win in Afghanistan," Obama said in a speech last week. "It is time to go after the Al Qaeda leadership where it actually exists."

The Illinois senator, whose opposition to the Iraq war is a campaign centerpiece, has concluded that the US presence there has fanned Islamic terrorism and diverted scarce military resources from taking on new terrorist camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Al Qaeda operatives trained for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Obama believes that the United States has relied too heavily on forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a Europe-based military alliance which has little experience in guerrilla warfare.

"Afghanistan should have been our fight," said retired Air Force General Merrill "Tony" McPeak, national cochairman of Obama's campaign. McPeak blamed the Iraq war, where the United States has about 140,000 troops, for diverting the Pentagon's focus on Afghanistan, where only 32,000 American troops are stationed.

That was acted on pretty early, 17 000 more troops were ordered into Afghanistan in March.

It's interesting on these issues because I read a post by Ezra Klein (admittedly an Obama fan) which described the Senate healthcare bill as broadly speaking what Obama campaigned on, while Dan Drezner (more of a neutral) wrote that Obama's foreign policy is broadly speaking what he campaigned on  - for better or worse.

[Fate]

He did not run on the public option.

http://mediamattersaction.org/factcheck/200911190006

Shall we start linking Newsmax as well? Media Matters is not a neutral source when it comes to liberal boilerplate issues.

[Sheilbh]

Off the top of my head I don't remember the exact wording of Obama's campaign promises about Afghanistan but I'm pretty sure he didn't say he would be pulling out in 18 months.

Well starting to withdraw - not actually withdraw - and it's still not clear if he meant from the whole operation or just the 'surge'.

[Faeelin]

Shall we start linking Newsmax as well? Media Matters is not a neutral source when it comes to liberal boilerplate issues.

Oh righteous sage, what source linking to media events is acceptable?

[Admiral Yi]

That was acted on pretty early, 17 000 more troops were ordered into Afghanistan in March.

Notice he didn't say "it's time to focus our attention on the war we have to win in Afghanistan for 18 months."

[Fate]

Shall we start linking Newsmax as well? Media Matters is not a neutral source when it comes to liberal boilerplate issues.

Oh righteous sage, what source linking to media events is acceptable?

The first qualification of an acceptable source is one that doesn't have an obsession with spinning every single utterance from Lieberman's mouth.

[Sheilbh]

Notice he didn't say "it's time to focus our attention on the war we have to win in Afghanistan for 18 months."

We've argued over that point a lot.  I think it's a deliberately vague promise - you think it's the most important part of that speech (I actually think it was the linking of Pakistan to the Taliban, never been done before by the US government).

[BuddhaRhubarb]

iirc it was Hilary who was all about the public option. Or am I misremembering. That was last year.

[Sheilbh]

iirc it was Hilary who was all about the public option. Or am I misremembering. That was last year.

Edwards and Clinton both supported a public option.  Obama did for certain people, such as, the self-employed.  But I think it must have been Democratic party policy because come the general election Obama did support a public option (and, I think, an individual mandate).

[Admiral Yi]

We've argued over that point a lot.  I think it's a deliberately vague promise - you think it's the most important part of that speech (I actually think it was the linking of Pakistan to the Taliban, never been done before by the US government).

We argued at length over the wiggle room left from his West Point speech.  This argument over campaign promises is brand new and fresh.

[Sheilbh]

We argued at length over the wiggle room left from his West Point speech.  This argument over campaign promises is brand new and fresh.

Oh, joy!

[grumbler]

We argued at length over the wiggle room left from his West Point speech.  This argument over campaign promises is brand new old and fresh boring.

FYPFY.  The signal to noise ratio on this topic isn't even 1%, but feel free to help the rest of the spinners beat that dead horse if that is what amuses you. 

[Valmy]

You gotta respect the guy. He pretty much fucked everybody over: the public option, repealing of Don't Ask Don't Tell, Defense of Marriage Act, ending the war in Iraq and/or Afghanistan etc. - he went back on everything.

Yeah I don't remember him promising those things.  I mean not that it matters.  The President does not have the power to do those things without Congress.

[Valmy]

So, I'm curious. I have mixed feelings about the statement; my gut reaction is that it's pretty sleazy, and comes off as Obama trying to distance himself from a cornerstone of his initial proposal that proved impossible, and is an effort to rewrite history. On the other hand....

I'm having trouble seeing the other hand. So I'm curious what people think. This isn't a comment on the merits of a public option, per se; it's rather a question of what people think of Obama as a politician.

Obama at least got something done on the Health Care thing and now can move forward.  I am not necessarily impressed but it was certainly farther than Bush got with his Social Security reform promise after 2004.