Barack's Confused Supporters

You can't blame Obama flacks for being confused. His positions on the war in Iraq are contradictory and evolving.

Two key Barack Obama advisers seemed to differ Tuesday on how willing the presumptive Democratic nominee would be to tweak his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq.

The Illinois senator has said he wants to begin removing one to two combat brigades per month immediately after becoming president, and have all brigades out of the country within 16 months.

Barack has been hedging on this ridiculous commitment, saying regularly that he won't do anything rash that would undermine our efforts thusfar and the success of the surge.

But Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a campaign co-chair, and Susan Rice, a foreign policy adviser, were both asked Tuesday whether Obama would consider changing course, given a report in The New Yorker that suggested he would. The article said Obama’s original plan “could revive the badly wounded Al Qaeda in Iraq, re-energize the Sunni insurgency … and return the central government to a state of collapse.”

And wouldn't you know it - they can't agree!

In an interview with MSNBC, Rice said Obama has been “consistent” on the matter, but that the 16-month plan is just an estimate — she suggested Obama has left himself wiggle room.

“That’s not a deadline. That’s a timetable,” she said. “And, obviously, as Senator Obama has said on numerous occasions, he will listen to his commanders on the ground; he will follow and heed their advice, as he decides how at the strategic level we must proceed.”

Well, jeez. Nobody told Claire!

McCaskill, asked the same question on the same network, was unequivocal.

“Well, first, no. No, he will not (change course). And Senator Obama fundamentally disagrees with that assessment,” she said. “If you can’t leave Iraq when it’s stable and you can’t leave when it’s not stable, that means that we are stuck with George Bush and John McCain; we can never leave Iraq.

“… It is unsustainable to continue to prop up, in the middle of a civil war, an Iraqi government that will not step up and do what they need to do to take over for their country. Now is the time that we need to carefully and reasonably withdraw,” she said.

Too bad McCaskill didn't get the memo. That's the official Barack position, needed to trick the Moveon.org crowd into dumping Hillary during primary season. It's general election time Claire - time to discard that nonsense!