Obama Adjusts Shots on Iraq

The Democratic candidate spread trouble on Thursday by saying that he reserved the right to “refine” his point of view on the issue.

If there is a line of demarcation between the two candidates for the White House, it’s the Iraq case. So when one of the two candidates implies that he might change political lines at the heart of the campaign, partisans and adversaries alike are perplexed.

This is what happened to Barack Obama last Thursday, at a meeting in Fargo, North Dakota. Referencing his next trip to Iraq, the Senator, who has advocated the immediate withdrawal of troops for the past year and a half, declared, “I’m going to do a thorough assessment when I’m there.” He affirmed “I am sure that I will have more information and I will continue to refine my politics.”

Amidst the fight to attract independents and centrist voters, these statements by Barack Obama have not taken long to spread trouble in the ranks.

Aware of the contradictory nature of these statements to the promises given until now, he felt obligated to call the press to clarify his intentions.

The adjustment on Thursday has not seemed successful since the Illinois Senator came to the charge two days later, admitting that “all this frenzy set off by a press conference” had left him “perplexed.”

“For me, saying that I will refine my policies is not contradictory to everything I’ve said before, ” Obama declared on Saturday to the journalists present on his campaign plane.

“My strategy has not changed, which is to end the war,” he added, reaffirming that he would be the president to put an end to the conflict.

“I am surprised at how finely calibrated every single word was measured. I never said anything different from what I’ve said for the past year, or since my entry in the Senate,” he continued.

Logically this communication error has not escaped the camp of his adversary, John McCain, who hastened to denounce the inconsistencies of the discussion. “What makes him ‘perplexed’ is that Obama does not always realize that his words are important, ” denounced the spokesman of the Republican campaign team, Tucker Bounds, on Saturday.