The Battle Over Consistency

With recent statements by the Obama campaign, the Junior Senator from Illinois has been taking hits from the campaign of Republican Senator John McCain questioning the consistency of his Iraq Withdrawal Strategy.

it does end up raising a few issues for Senator Obama as another look is taken at his stance and the positions that he has taken. Namely, how consistent has his policy been? How consistent has his actual opposition to the war in Iraq been? Is he now trying to seek a degree of wiggle room in regards to his policy in case his phase redeployment is not possible according to the time line he proposed? Those are the questions some foreign policy experts and the John McCain question are now asking.

By Citizen Correspondent Wyatt McIntyre

Date Posted: 07/06/08

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"Significant question as to exactly what he intends..."

That's the new line coming from the campaign of Presumptive Republican Nominee John McCain as he seeks to highlight differences between him and his principle rival in the 2008 race for the White House, Illinois Junior Senator Barack Obama, but as he seeks to give an image of his opponent at odds with himself over his policy regarding the Iraq War. Without a doubt Senator Obama has invested considerable time in portraying himself as a consistent opponent of the Iraq War since the start, pointing to the speech he made in 2002 as American Military action against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein seemed inevitable. Yet with recent statements made by the Junior Senator out of the Land of Lincoln regarding his policy of troop withdrawal in the fledgling new democracy, it would seem that it has opened himself up to questions about how serious that commitment truly is from Senator McCain.

The statements in question come from a speech that Senator Obama made on Thursday where he had stated that he would "continue to refine" his policies regarding the war depending on the advise of the commanders on the ground. A statement he would later find called into question, he would have to come back to it later to say that it would not change his policy of troop redeployment or his 16 month plan for a phase withdrawal from the country. "I intend to end this war. My first day in office I will bring the Joint Chief's of Staff in and I will give them a new mission and that is to end this war, responsibly, deliberately, but decisively and I have seen no information that contradicts that notion that we can bring our troops out at a pace of one to two brigades a month and again that pace translates into having our combat troops out in sixteen months time," Senator Obama would explain later in a press conference given at a campaign stop in Fargo, North Dakota.

The McCain response, coming in a conference call this morning with the Arizona Senator's Foreign Policy Advisor, Randy Scheunemann, has been one of skepticism towards the validity of the claim that the statements by Senator Obama represents a consistent policy message. "The position of [McCain's] campaign is that words do matter," Scheunemann would state making reference to a speech by Senator Obama in Wisconsin during his primary fight with New York Senator Hillary Clinton when he was criticized for having "speeches not solutions". "Sen.