Obama '08?

Didn't back away from any questions (including about the youtube thingie).

KING: There's an anti-Clinton ad out, which your campaign said it has nothing to do with, causing a stir on YouTube Internet site. It reuses footage from the famous 1984 Super Bowl for Apple Computer to slam Clinton and support Obama. Here's a look, and we'll get your comments.

(VIDEO CLIP IS PLAYED)

KING: Are you disclaiming -- what is your read on that?

OBAMA: Well, we knew nothing about it. I just saw it for the first time, and you know, one of the things about the Internet is, that people generate all kinds of stuff. In some ways, it's the democratization of the campaign process, but it's not something that we had anything to do with or were aware of, and that frankly, given what it looks like, we don't have the technical capacity to create something like this. It's pretty extraordinary.

Well, I think that anybody who considers the job of the presidency and doesn't think it's a little daunting probably hasn't been paying attention.

After reading the CNN interview, I don't understand how Obama squares his "bring the troops home" message with his "finish the job in Afghanistan" message. According to every serious analysis I've read, winning Afghanistan requires that the US withdraw its troops from Iraq, redeploy them in Afghanistan, and leave them there for an unknown number of years. How does this fit together with "bring the troops home"?

I think that the consensus is that redeployment to afgh. will require less troops overall than the current committment in Iraq. Longer furloughs, etc.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

I think that the consensus is that redeployment to afgh. will require less troops overall than the current committment in Iraq. Longer furloughs, etc.

I'm not buying that. I don't have the citation ready to hand. But a few months ago, Paul Krugman cited a study that compared successful with failed occupations since World War II, then counted how many occupants per capita were deployed in them. The result was that if historic trends prevail, America has lost in Iraq and has a fighting chance in Afghanistan, but only if it redeploys all the troops currently in Iraq.

Granted, extrapolating historic trends can be an iffy approach to analysis. But I'll take it over an aspiring president's wishful thinking anytime.

Ooops.

Orwellian Hill hit ordered by Obama...?

Thunk!

He said he produced the ad outside of work and that neither Blue State nor the Obama campaign was aware of his role in the ad.