October 7, 2008 6:13:17 AM CDT
(Newser) – President Bush’s former communications director is decidedly off GOP message in a new interview, Politico reports, with Dan Bartlett, now in the private sector, saying, “Time will tell, but the al-Maliki comments about a timetable is very close to a game-changing event. That was incredibly damaging [to McCain], because it neutralized one of [Obama’s] biggest liabilities."
Source Politico
Jul 25, 08 5:00 PM CDT In an interview with CNN today, John McCain called Nouri al-Maliki’s troop withdrawal plan a “pretty good timetable”—leading Josh Marshall, on Talking Points Memo, to call foul. So “Barack Obama's 16 month timetable is a catastrophe,” Marshall says, the difference being that the Iraqi prime minister’s “is based on conditions on the ground and Obama's isn't—even though they're both 16 months.” More »
Jul 25, 08 8:48 AM CDT Nouri al-Maliki's endorsement of Barack Obama's timetable for withdrawal from Iraq this week was "the earliest and most ostentatious absentee ballot of this presidential election," writes Charles Krauthammer. The Washington Post columnist thinks that the Iraqi PM gave Obama an electorial assist for a clear reason: between him and John McCain, "it is no mystery who would be the more pliant US negotiator." More »
Jul 23, 08 10:08 AM CDT John McCain was right about the surge, so it’s natural he’s eager to talk about it. But thanks to that very success, Barack Obama finds himself, by luck or cunning, positioned perfectly, Thomas Friedman writes in the New York Times. As security improves, Iraqis want Americans to leave. If they don’t, Iraq will coalesce into a unified nation—unified against the US. More »
Jul 22, 08 11:29 AM CDT Barack Obama said today that, with improved security in Iraq, the US should turn its attention to Afghanistan. “There is security progress, but now we need a political solution” in Iraq, Obama said in Amman, Jordan—in his first news conference abroad, the AP reports. Afghanistan, the “central front in the war against terrorism,” is in “a deteriorating situation." More »
Jul 22, 08 8:30 AM CDT Presidential candidate Barack Obama's weeklong tour of seven countries has so far been fruitful, politically agile, and especially lucky, reports the New York Times. The Illinois senator's withdrawal plan received a timely endorsement from Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, coinciding with President Bush's embrace of a "time horizon" for pulling troops out of the war-torn country. More »
Barack Obama • John McCain • George W. Bush • Nouri al-Maliki • troop withdrawal • Iraq exit strategy • timetable • Dan Bartlett
