MSM: Sub-Zero Stupidity

Josh Marshall (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/202750.php) notes the brouhaha over Barack Obama's statement yesterday about "refining" his position on Iraq and asks the rhetorical question "Do reporters have brains?"

I've watched this campaign unfold pretty closely. And I've listened to Obama's position on Iraq. He's been very clear through this year and last on the distinction between strategy and tactics. Presidents set the strategy -- which in this context means the goal or the policy. And if the policy is a military one, a President will consult closely with his military advisors on the tactics used to execute the policy.

The simple truth is that this campaign offers a very clear cut choice on Iraq. One candidate believes that the US occupation of Iraq is the solution; the other thinks it's the problem. John McCain supports the permanent deployment of US troops in Iraq. That is why his hundred years remark isn't some gotcha line. It's a clear statement of his policy. Obama supports a deliberate and orderly withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. It's a completely different view of America's role in the world and future in the Middle East. Reporters who can't grasp what Obama is saying seem simply to have been permanently befuddled by George W. Bush's game-playing over delegating policy to commanders.

Fortunately, some reporters seem to get this. Michael Crowley wrote a fine piece in The New Republic in May 2008 (http://www.cnas.org/en/articles/printview.asp?456) laying out Obama's position in much the same terms as the candidate did in Fargo, N.D. yesterday.

Interviews with nearly two dozen foreign policy and military experts, as well as Obama's campaign advisers, and a close review of Obama's own statements on Iraq, suggest something more nuanced. What he is offering is a basic vision of withdrawal with muddy particulars, one his advisers are still formulating and one that, if he is elected, is destined to meet an even muddier reality on the ground. Obama has set a clear direction for U.S. policy in Iraq: He wants us out of Iraq; but he's not willing to do it at any cost--even if it means dashing the hopes of some of his more fervent and naïve supporters.

Part of the problem here is the predictable attack spin from the McCain campaign in response to pretty much anything Obama says. However, part of it is due to the sound-bite, reductionist understanding of candidates' policy positions by many members of the press.