Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[BabylonHoruv]

we voted in Obama because he wow'd us with his promise of at least addressing the damage we've done to ourselves over the last eight years.

Is it not just because the other guy was slightly worse?

didn't a lot of people here already call Obama would break a lot of those promises real quick?

don't be too hard on yourself by thinking you really had that much choice in the matter.

I was really hopeful about Obama, otherwise I would have voted 3rd party like I tend to do.  McCain didn't strike me as horribly awful, my main concern with him was that he would die and leave us with president pookykins.

[Juana]

McCain has a temper. A horrible, horrible temper. That (and that he was Bush 2.0) was about half the reason I didn't vote for him.

[Requia ☣]

we voted in Obama because he wow'd us with his promise of at least addressing the damage we've done to ourselves over the last eight years.

Is it not just because the other guy was slightly worse?

didn't a lot of people here already call Obama would break a lot of those promises real quick?

don't be too hard on yourself by thinking you really had that much choice in the matter.

If I remember right, Roger called him out on breaking his promises before the primaries were even over.  Obama got a really early start.

[Cain]

It was apparent what Obama's game was once the FISA vote rolled around during the 2008 elections.

Anyway, is it me, or is there something somewhat...worrying about a general launching a PR campaign in direct opposition to the stated policy of the US government?  Advising in private, sure, fair enough, but blabbing to the press about it as well?  It's not like he's advancing a neglected minority view either - while a majority of American citizens want to withdraw, the American press and govt remains overwhelmingly in favour of the occupation (another example of the disconnect between political elites and voters) and either want to escalate, or go for Obama's compromise solution.

Also lol "the aim is still to capture Bin Laden".  Might wanna try on the other side of the Hindu Kush for that.  I mean, you are, but Predator Drones don't exactly make clean arrests.

[Jenne]

I watched the NBC one-on-one interview they did with Petraeus in Afghanistan when it was on yesterday.  I thought his excuses for not adhering strictly to the thrust of the deadline were interesting and somewhat predictable.  He said it was the "beginning of a process" and not really a "beginning of a withdrawal," that he and the president had "talked about it at the White House" and that the July 2011 date wasn't movable.  He made it sound very "dotted" line, not hard and fast.  That Obama's commitment to a secure Afghanistan was more important than troop withdrawal at this point.

It sounded really fucking reasonable, so I'm interested to see how the WH sees his comments.

[Jenne]

And the fervor against the war from the homefront has somewhat slowed down, from what I gather the polls show about American angst and anger about the state of things.  People are more worried about jobs and money than they are about the war.  It's nearly dead-last on the poll results from last week, according to Gwen Eiffel's "Washington Week" from last Friday on PBS.