Schumer’s Going to Be Proven Wrong
Jan 29th, 2007 at 9:49 am by PSoTD
From yesterday on Meet the Press:
SEN. SCHUMER: Well, I think the bottom line is that the president will have no choice but to begin a withdrawal come this summer or fall of 2007. And that’s why I think the 2008 election, Tim, is going to turn on a positive platform. That’s what I’ve written…
MR. RUSSERT: Not Iraq.
SEN. SCHUMER: Not Iraq. I think we do have to discuss how to deal with the war on terror in the future. But I think that the president has shown so little veering from this plan, which is a disaster, that by 2000–early 2008, even he is going to be forced to withdraw troops from Iraq.
C’mon, Chuck, Pollack was sitting at the same table as you were. You heard the next phase being laid out - containment of the civil war. Bush isn’t going to let us leave, he’ll just change the mission. Troops will be kept in the area, but perhaps reduced greatly out of Baghdad. To prevent the “spread” of civil war.
And 2008? C’mon, it’s not going to be positive - it’s going to be a campaign against the continuing idiocy of the Bush Administration creating civil wars around the world all the time backed by Republicans, versus a campaign against the weak-willed traitorous Democrats who caused the United States to lose, at least temporarily, Iraq.
There’s no value in unrealistic optimism at this point.
The demographic makeup of the great state of New York makes Schumer’s silly Pollyanna stance a political necessity. He has too many constituents with deep emotional ties to Middle East policy. Admitting the US has limited leverage in the area would alienate a fair percentage of those voters.
That doesn’t mean he has to write a book promoting a fiction for the entire party to follow. Besides, he’s not up for re-election again until 2010.
Leadership based in reality is what we really need.
schumer’s problem is that he’s on this “democrats must put forward a specific platform” thing. which is fine, even good. it’s just that iraq is such a clusterfuck that no one has a clue of what to do with it. we have nothing but bad options, and no politician wants to tell the american people: “yeah a withdrawal will be a disaster for iraq, it’s just that it will be less of a disaster than if we stay.”
“vote for me, we’ll do the least bad option!” is not a slogan schumer wants the party to run on. and so instead he’s simply wishing iraq away.
Well put. But you know what? I think America wants a politician to say to them - it’s only bad choices, here’s the least bad choice we see for America and Iraq, no guarantee it won’t be problematic either, but we won’t fixate on a policy that isn’t working, or tell you it’s working when it clearly isn’t working.
They won’t enjoy the news, but they’ll appreciate being treated honestly.