Thread: McCain Gives Qualified Endorsement to Obama's Iraq Timetable

McCain seems to be endorsing Obama's plan for a phased withdrawl from Iraq. That's interesting coming from the candidate who just a couple of months ago advocated staying in Iraq as long as it would take to achieve victory.

First the Iraqi government gave Senator Barack Obama a boost by seeming to embrace his proposal for a 16-month timetable for withdrawing American troops from Iraq. Now could Senator John McCain, who built his candidacy in large part on his opposition to such a schedule, possibly be following suit?


“I think it’s a pretty good timetable,” Mr. McCain said Friday in an interview on “The Situation Room” on CNN, before adding that it should be based “on the conditions on the ground.”
For months Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has strongly opposed setting a timetable for withdrawal and has criticized Mr. Obama, his Democratic rival, for suggesting one. But the debate has shifted in recent days as Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, moved closer to Mr. Obama’s position.
In the CNN interview, Mr. McCain first seemed to play down any possibility that Mr. Maliki would actually ask the United States to withdraw in the next 16 months to two years. “He won’t,” Mr. McCain said, explaining that he knew Mr. Maliki well.
Then, asked why he thought Mr. Maliki had called 16 months a potentially suitable timetable, Mr. McCain gave his enigmatic answer.
“He said it’s a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground,” Mr. McCain said. “I think it’s a pretty good timetable, as we should — or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions on the ground. This success is very fragile. It’s incredibly impressive, but very fragile. So we know, those of us who have been involved in it for many years, know that if we reverse this, by setting a date for withdrawal, all of the hard-won victory can be reversed.”
Democrats exulted, sending transcripts of the statement to reporters to suggest that Mr. McCain was coming around to Mr. Obama’s way of thinking. The McCain campaign did not explain the remark, but said Mr. McCain’s position continued to be that he wanted the troops to withdraw based on conditions on the ground.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us...in.html?ref=us

Originally Posted by Bourne

McCain seems to be endorsing Obama's plan for a phased withdrawl from Iraq. That's interesting coming from the candidate who just a couple of months ago advocated staying in Iraq as long as it would take to achieve victory.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us...in.html?ref=us

Copycat.
He's just juicing it for the liberal vote, though I'm starting to have my doubts for Obama's sincerities here of late. Either he's jucing the conservative vote (on his stance with the war on terror), or he's just another puppet of the war profiteers.