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ST. LOUIS – Two days ago, Senator Barack Obama said he had not been clear enough in explaining his Iraq policy. Today, there was a different rationale. The confusion was not his fault, Mr. Obama said, but rather the media’s for seizing on three words he uttered in Fargo, N.D., when he suggested he would be open to “refine my policies” on Iraq. “I was surprised by how finely calibrated every single word was measured,” he said, speaking to reporters as he flew here from Montana.

ABC News’ Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama told reporters he was “puzzled” by the press coverage he received on Thursday when he held two separate press conferences to explain his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. On Thursday in Fargo, N.D,, Obama told reporters in a morning press conference that he will “continue to refine” his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq in 16 months. Reporters immediately jumped on the comments that showed that Obama’s expressed openness to adjust his long-held 16-month withdrawal plans was at odds with the stance that he took during the...

Sen. Barack Obama, speaking on board his campaign plane as it headed to St. Louis on Saturday, continued to defend his position on Iraq — and questioned reporters' parsing of his words. "I am surprised at how … the press … I'm not trying to dump on you guys, but I'm surprised at how finely calibrated every single word was measured," Obama said.

Obama says he is 'puzzled' by Iraq comment frenzy 05 Jul 2008 19:49:28 GMT Source: Reuters By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent ST. LOUIS, July 5 (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Saturday his plan to end the Iraq war was unchanged and he was puzzled by the sharp reaction to his statement this week that he might "refine" his timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat troops. "For me to say that I'm going to refine my policies I don't think in any way is inconsistent with prior statements and doesn't change my strategic view that this war has...

Change, it turns out, wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Having campaigned for the past year as the agent of transformation, the man who would lead an historic shift in America's political direction, Barack Obama is discovering that there is quite a lot he likes about the way things are. Since securing the Democratic nomination a few weeks ago, the only change coming from the Illinois senator has been in what he seems to stand for. Last month he dropped his opposition to a Bill before Congress that would give telecoms companies immunity from prosecution for carrying...

Is his campaign dishonest or disorganized? Obama's flip-flopping June There's nothing wrong with a politician changing his mind. They all do it, and constancy in the face of error can be as harmful as flip-flopping. Yet the month of June saw Barack Obama abandoning positions at a clip so brisk it should give even his most stalwart supporters pause. In the wake of last week's Supreme Court ruling overturning Washington's handgun ban, for instance, the Obama campaign disavowed a 2007 statement it had made about the constitutionality of gun laws as "inartful." After claiming in May that he would debate...

... “I am going to do a thorough assessment when I’m there,” he told reporters on the airport tarmac here. “I’m sure I’ll have more information and continue to refine my policy.” … “I’m going to continue to gather information to see whether those conditions still hold,” he said. “My goal is to end this conflict as soon as possible.” … “My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything that I’ve said, was always premised on making sure that our troops were safe…I said that based on the information that we had received from our commanders that one to two brigades...

Progressive Democratic Group Attempting To Bribe Barack Obama Progressives are once against eating their own. There is a progressive Democratic Group that is encouraging their members to create an "escrow" fund with pledged donations to Barack Obama that he will not receive unless he conforms to the behavior they want of him. Recently Congress passed an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), with a 293 to 129 vote, which included a very controversial issue to provide immunity to telecommunications companies that provided data to the U.S. administration. That bill is to be considered in the U.S. Senate and...

Does Barack Obama's "Refine" Mean the Same Thing As Evolving, or Flip Flopping? Refine, evolve, changes his mind.....they all mean the same thing.....Flip Flopping. Creating a record even for himself on flip flopping positions, Barack Obama has said that after visiting Iraq he may "redefine" his Iraq timeline. I remember when ABC spoke of the flip flops that Obama made on Iran, they described them as his "evolving" positions, now we see The Politico, using the term "refine". News for people, a rose is a rose no matter what you choose to call it, and flip flopping is flip flopping...

Obama's policy switches are giving the Left whiplash Now that Barack Obama has added Iraq to his list of recent flip-flops including campaign financing,FISA and NAFTA, he is starting to make his liberal constituency very upset (see Obama Voters Protest His Switch on Telecom Immunity) Others aren't getting angry--just confused. It is clear that Obama's policy switches are giving the left whiplash. But will it help him with the right or the independents? I can't believe that Americans will buy it: Barack Obama's policy switches are giving the Left whiplash The Democratic nominee's policy pivots are causing anguish among liberals....

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama insisted Thursday he had not changed his plan to order immediate troop withdrawals from Iraq, despite earlier saying he might refine his policies. Obama's attempts to clarify his Iraq policy, before a looming visit to the war zone, drew a triumphant response from the campaign of Republican presumptive nominee John McCain, a staunch supporter of the current war effort. Obama held two press conferences within hours in North Dakota, in an attempt to dispel reports that he was softening his proposal to get all combat troops home within 16 months, in...

Even if Democrats win control of Congress in elections next week, an immediate change of course in Iraq policy is unlikely, the party's chairman said on Sunday. Countering Republican campaign charges that Democrats would "cut and run" from Iraq, chairman Howard Dean said the party did not believe there should be a sudden pullout of all U.S. troops. "The president will still be in charge of foreign policy and the military ... I don't imagine we're going to be able to force the president to reverse his course," he told the CBS "Face the Nation" program. "But we will put...

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada's recent announcement of his intention to defy orders to deploy to Iraq has sparked emotional responses from supporters and critics of the Bush administration. But it also elicits probing questions about the real reasons behind the young officer's decision. Although he cloaks himself with the patriotic qualities of having enlisted because of a "pull of duty, service and patriotism," he now claims that, after having "researched" Iraq, he has had a realization that the war in Iraq is "immoral" and "illegal." One might presume that, knowing his enlistment might lead to his deployment to...

WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry is placing himself at the center of congressional action over the war in Iraq this week with a crisply worded resolution to require President Bush to withdraw almost all US troops by the end of this year. The measure has exposed Kerry to attacks from Republicans and some Democrats, as critics rushed to tag the plan as a ``cut-and-run" strategy. But it also has made him a rallying point for antiwar activists. The sweeping resolution amounts to the senator's sharpest condemnation of the war and his broadest repudiation of his own vote to authorize...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), failed presidential candidate, must think he has a future in comedy. Problem is, no one else thinks he’s funny. Kerry commented to a veterans group in Boston, Kerry said, "If we take back the House, there a solid case to bring articles of impeachment against this president.” That knee-slapper bombed as a joke and now Kerry’s staff is scrambling to provide cover for his statement. The Boston Globe reports that a spokeswoman for Kerry, April Boyd, tried to downplay the senator’s comment with a zinger of her own, saying "Impeachment jokes in Washington are as old...

John Edwards is often compared to Bill Clinton. Supporters of both cite charisma, charm and an ability to connect with regular people. However, since losing the 2004 presidential election, Edwards has shown additional similarities and some differences with Clinton that both reflect poorly on his chances to remain in the political spotlight as a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Over the weekend Edwards made a bid for liberal credibility and electoral viability by declaring he was wrong to support the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2002. In a Washington Post op-ed, Edwards wrote: "The intelligence was deeply flawed...

A top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton thinks fellow Democrat John Kerry "ran what was basically an inconsistent campaign" for president last year, according to a published report Thursday. Clinton and Kerry are considered potential rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The Kerry campaign had "a different message every two or three weeks," Ann Lewis, director of communications for Clinton's political action committee, told the Forward, a weekly New York City-based newspaper aimed at a Jewish audience. Lewis is quoted as saying the Kerry campaign "kept trying to rationally convince, to put a presidency together, line by line,...

Drudge ran a story that this morning after shooting a goose, Kerry said he was too lazy to carry his kill because he was "giddy" over the Red Sox and couldn't focus. I could not help but remember the second Presidential debate when he said this in response to the environmental question..... GIBSON: Senator Kerry, minute and a half. KERRY: Boy, to listen to that -- the president, I don't think, is living in a world of reality with respect to the environment. Now, if you're a Red Sox fan, that's OK. But if you're a president, it's not. He basically said that...

45 minutes to go. If there is already a live debate thread go ahead and delete this. I understand posting a live thread has become a somewhat of a political ordeal here, when it shouldn't be. So to take the pressure off, I'm posting this anyway. Do I dare? LOL!

WASHINGTON — Senator John Kerry tried reintroducing himself last week with a new speech against the Iraq war, but he promptly ran into an old problem. To Democrats, it was a fresh, tough speech that put him in good position to challenge President Bush in this week's debate. To Republicans, it was a familiar opportunity. They gleefully labeled it Mr. Kerry's ninth different position on Iraq and put up a commercial showing him windsurfing to the strains of the "Blue Danube" waltz while a narrator dismissed his Iraq policies as going "whichever way the wind blows." By sticking to their...