November 28, 2024

Spinning the Visit

I have not had a chance to see any pundits or read any commentary on the President's visit to Iraq yesterday, aside from some generally positive reaction in the Blogosphere yesterday evening.

My guess is that most of the Democrats/critics of the President will say it was a stunt of some kind, they will talk about the unnecessary risk (which is a legit criticism), and say that it was all done for political reasons. I suspect some will try to say that it was an attempt to re-create the carrier landing and replace it as a symbol that the President can use in the campaign, since the "Mission Accomplished" flap somewhat tainted that event.

I suspect that Republicans/supportes of the President will be impressed, and see it as a highly valuable symbolic move by the President.

I think that it represented 1) a sincere wish to honor the troops on Thanksgiving, and 2) a strong statement of our committment (based on hs speech) that we are in Iraq militarily for the long haul, even if there is a transition to Iraqi civilian government by next summer.

And certainly it was a logistically impressive event, to say the least.

UPDATE: James of OTB has a round-up of Blogospheric reactions.

UPDATE II: Sean Hackbarth of the American Mind has a lengthy round-up of his own (Hat-Tip to James)

Update III: Overtaken by Events has a nice round-up as well, including a nice list of headlines from various news outlets.

Posted by Steven at November 28, 2024 09:54 AM | TrackBack
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?