Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Unshocking has Happenned

Is anyone surprised that McCrystal is out and Petraeus is in?  As Prof. Jacobson pointed out at Legal Insurrection, the most damning "McCrystal" quotes from the Rolling Stone article that started this whole ball rolling were not actually quotes from Gen. McCrystal but from the general's aids.  Obama could have kept McCrystal on but Obama wanted to appear strong-no easy task our effete and quibbling Commander in Chief.

But then an odd thing happenned...

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Not that I would ever accuse the honorable MoveOn.Org of hypocrisy or anything, but it strikes me odd that they would pick today to scrub their “General Betray Us” page from their website. After all, the only change is that Obama has handpicked Gen. Petraeus to take over where his handpicked Gen. McCrystal is leaving off (letting go?). If the Lefties disapproved of Gen. Petraeus yesterday, and they certainly did, shouldn’t the same still hold true today? Weasel Zippers has the screen shots and this via Drudge:

WASHINGTON (Friday, September 21, 2007) — The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a measure condemning MoveOn.org for a newspaper ad it ran last week attacking Gen. David Petraeus. The move came as President Bush accused Democrats of cowering to the liberal political action group.

. . . Partisans also took the opportunity to slam Clinton and Obama for not voting on the amendment.

“Senators Clinton and Obama need to decide whether they’re running for America, or running for MoveOn.org. If Clinton and Obama cannot bring themselves to take a stand against a vicious attack on the man leading our forces in Iraq, why should American voters believe they are capable of demonstrating the leadership we need in a commander in chief?” said Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan.
All this might lead some to believe the folks at MoveOn.Org are being a might, um, inconsistent. If it “Betray Us” under Bush then wouldn’t it follow that it would be “Betray Us” under Obama? Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to jump to any wrong conclusions about MoveOn’s motives, principals, scruples, integrity or honor but…

Read the rest.
 
Update via Instapundit:


So Obama has done what he does best: vote “present”, and punt. But in this case, he’s punted to someone who actually knows what they are doing. We may not agree with Petraeus’s exact personnel choices (of which I assume there will be many, not just the second-in-command I note), but I feel certain he’ll make them for better reasons and with better rationale than Obama.

No doubt.

Update II

Stacy McCain summarizes Obama's remarks:

Blahblahblah “Pock-ee-stahn” blahblahblah “grateful for sacrifice” blahblahblah . .
Update III

Stacy McCain and Ed Morrisey are currently tied at ten updates a piece! Should either of them decide to update and link me they would break the tie and I predict that person would go on to victory.

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