Lying About the Lies.

The Obama campaign is apparently getting nervous about the media focus on his preparations to abandon his faux anti-war stance.

Most people haven't noticed this yet, but the campaign has been systematically laying the foundation for an abandonment of it's long standing position on the Iraq war while officially sticking to it.

The plan appears to have been this - first, dupe the anti-war movement into supporting him instead of Hillary based on an unworkable proposal to withdraw all troops without regard for developments on the ground, then dump that plan after getting the nomination and move toward something appropriate during the general election.

The bait and switch seems to be working on the rest of Barack's position, so why not on Iraq?

Well, folks are starting to notice how manipulative this guy is, so he held a second press conference today - not to clarify what he had said earlier, but to do the opposite.

He said what he learns from military commanders on his upcoming trip to Iraq will refine his policy but "not the 16-month timetable" for withdrawing U.S. troops from combat in Iraq. He said what he learns could affect how many residual troops might be needed to train the Iraqi army and police.

Earlier in the day he said essentially that the withdrawal timetable had always been subject to modification in reaction to the realities on the ground and the wishes of commanders.

Democrat Barack Obama says he's always been open to refining his Iraq policy but blamed Republican John McCain's campaign for suggesting "we were changing our policy when we haven't."

Boy, is this character ever slippery. Earlier today he said this:

"...my position has not changed, but keep in mind what that original position was. I have always said that I will listen to commanders on the ground;

I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability.

That assessment has not changed and when I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure Ill have more information and will continue to refine my policies.”

This is a total departure from his official plan for Iraq:

Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.

The campaign has a problem - how to escape from those two, clear and unequivocal sentences. The press conference earlier today was an attempt to build an escape route - but Barack was a bit too clear, perhaps, that change is coming and which deceptions will be used to justify it, so they had a second press conference to make his clarification less clear.

They haven't changed their policy yet, but it is clear that the plan is to revise it after his return from Iraq.