What They Said

I lifted these from the front page of the Indianapolis Star, Wednesday. They were sound bites from the first day of the Petraeus hearings. All three candidates were in attendance, all three had much to say (which is customary in this situation).



Hillary Clinton:

I think it's time to begin an orderly process of withdrawing our troops, start rebuilding our military.

The wrong plan.

A premature disastrous departure makes no sense for the long term stability of the region. She knows it and would have no trouble going back on this promise. She's just playing to the anti-war base. The trouble is, she'd leave them there only to screw it up worse than it already is.

Barack Obama:

I continue to believe that the original decision to go into Iraq was a massive strategic blunder.

No plan.

He's still arguing the case against the war. But it's not a valid argument for the present or the future, it's about what we cannot change now.

Even if it were the biggest blunder ever, the fact remains we are there. If we leave before the job is done, we risk certain instability and the further strengthening of Iran's influence. Now that we see Iraq's Army pushing back at the Mahdi Army, we can truly see some progress (however overdue it may be).

John McCain:

We are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success.

A better plan than the other two.

The only thing I would say different is, the can should be replaced with may. Other than this minor deviation, this is certainly a more sensible way of looking at what we have in our hands right now. It is much more accurate account.

Question: How far can you run into the woods?

Answer: Halfway. Because then, you would be running out of the woods.