On Iraq—Obama Flip-Flops Twice The Same Day

Barack Obama battled charges that he was reinventing his plan for withdrawal from Iraq Thursday, carving out a nuanced military policy after saying earlier in the day that he might "refine" flip-flop his Iraq approach.

The earlier statement was widely interpreted as a willingness to revise his long-stated plan to withdraw all brigades within 16 months of taking office, and opened him up to Republican attacks.

But the backlash led Obama to call a second press conference, where the fanatical leftist said he was not talking about refining his 16-month timetable (flip-flop #2).

GOP criticism Thursday initially came from the Republican National Committee, which in a statement said: "There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience."

But his second press conference touched off a new round of recriminations.

The RNC repeated its charge, and McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Obama has "reversed" his position.

"Now that Barack Obama has changed course and proven his past positions to be just empty words, we would like to congratulate him for accepting John McCain's principled stand on this critical national security issue. If he had visited Iraq sooner or actually had a one-on-one meeting with General Petraeus, he would have changed his position long ago," Rogers said in a statement.

During the Democratic primary, Obama said repeatedly that he would end the Iraq war in 2009.

Obama's Web site says he would immediately begin removing troops from Iraq upon taking office. It says he would remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all brigades out of Iraq in 16 months.

Obama has scheduled a trip to Europe and the Middle East that includes stops in Jordan, Israel, the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Obama's campaign announced recently that he also plans to head to Iraq and Afghanistan over the summer as part of a congressional delegation, answering complaints from John McCain and other Republicans that he has not visited the region since January 2006.

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[johnsreport]

Trying to decide if Obama is merely a liar, or a narcissist. But either way, he is very strange.

johnsreport(com)

[nimitz1983]

What does it say when over half of the people who support Obama constantly curse and swear in their comments.I think it goes to show you his base of voter are uneducated rude and just plain ignorant.Wake up America his words are just that words.Mark my words there won't be any change,we will just lose more civil liberities to a point where we wont be a democracy any more.Also don't pin me down as a Bush loyalist cause he and his staff are just as bad.

[stratelite]

Halliburton must have had a talk with Obama about their donations to his campaign...

[mauicletus]

@a1mint oh yeah god forbid an average person that isn't a Ivy league lawyer be president.

[44Grimmace]

oh, it's a "do as i say" not a "do as i did" kinda thing. it's ok for THEM to bash bash bash, but we have to give more chances.

[a1mint]

McCane would have been a hopeless pile of useless crap, more of the same. Thank goodness people weren't dumb enough to choose McSame + Parrot Palin. And oh, my, god, what the crap was that, Palin, good bloody grief. It still hurts thinking about whatever the hell that was.

[TheRealCorsican]

Umm, yeah; how's that working out so far? The "vast majority" are uninformed sheep. If McCain had gotten in and done all the egregious things Osama has done, the major media would be screaming for blood. And like the bleating sheep they are, the "vast majority" would have fallen right into step with them.

[mhunt05]

I wanna know how many of you lib's out there said " give Bush a chance! " He made a promise by saying " I will end the war on Iraq by 2009! " and now he is going against that promise! Rome is burning and your to blame!

[podman27]

AS far as his voters go, im not racist but the fact that 97 percent of blacks voted for him realy ticks me off. people dont even know his belifes and they just vote for him.

civil liberties like gun rights? i herd hese agains gun rights.

an armed man is a citisen, and unarmed man is a subject

[imalaylow]

ohhh yeah you first day in office you'll do something more important like build a basketball court in the hous with the american dollar... how the fucc does he have time for hoops when it's time to work??