Politics

Starting Gate: Obama's Iraq Clarity

By Vaughn Ververs

July 14, 2008 / 9:41 AM EDT / CBS News

After a week's worth of stories and speculation about Barack Obama's move to "the middle" on issues near and dear to the hearts of progressive activists (see the FISA bill flap), Obama is redoubling his effort to make his position on the war in Iraq clear.

Throughout the primary campaign, Obama pledged to end the war, telling voters that he would pull U.S. troops out of that country at a rate which would result in nearly all troops out in 16 months. Obama seemed to fudge recently when he suggested that he would talk with military commanders on the ground during his upcoming trip to Iraq and that what he learned would help dictate the pace of withdrawal.

Coming on the heels of a series of moderating shifts on issues like the Supreme Court decision on the D.C. gun ban, Obama set off a lot of chatter about his commitment to ending the war quickly. That prospect did not sit well with activists in his party. So, in a New York Times op-ed today, Obama clarifies his position on the war.

"This is not a strategy for success," Obama says of the refusal to put a timeline on withdrawal. "It is a strategy for staying that runs contrary to the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States. That is why, on my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war."

More Obama: "As I've said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 — two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces. That would not be a precipitous withdrawal."

Around The Track

Both candidates are courting the Latino vote at the National Council of La Raza, where Obama appeared yesterday. McCain will speak today and, according to prepared remarks, will remind voters about his immigration reform bill, slammed as an amnesty bill by many conservatives. "I took my lumps for it without complaint. My campaign was written off as a lost cause. I did so not just because I believed it was the right thing to do for Hispanic Americans. It was the right thing to do for all Americans," McCain will say, according to the AP. "I do ask for your trust that when I say, I remain committed to fair, practical and comprehensive immigration reform, I mean it. I think I have earned that trust."

The Obama campaign is unhappy with the New Yorker cover, which depicts the candidate and his wife as terrorists in an attempt, the magazine says, address rumors that have floated around about the Democrat. "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

Some Hillary Clinton supporters are focusing their fund-raising skills on a campaign to get a roll call vote for their candidate at the Democratic National Convention, reports Congressional Quarterly.

There's plenty happening on the vice presidential front as time grows shorter every day for the candidates to make a pick. Be sure to keep up with all the buzz and see who's up and who's down with the Democratic and Republican vice presidential Hot Sheets.