[noodles]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/....ap/index.html

What he said is exactly right on the mark.

[zimbloth]

Yes you're right, I couldn't agree with you more, but you still just can't say that. You have to just play the game, not give "the liberal media" any excuse to dedicate 8 days a week brainwashing the masses with "Obama hates the troops" punditry etc. He should have been smarter.

[JJ Rodriguez]

But his apology also reiterated the point he was trying to make though, that it was the civilian leadership that is the problem, not with the military.

[zimbloth]

Yes but the damage is done. You really trust the public to pay attention to anything more than the hyped up soundbyte? You just have to be more careful.

[Drew]

Nah, he should have said "fuck it," and stuck to his guns.

There's two ways to play this. You can play by the conservative media's rules, in which case you don't say anything in the first place, and apologize profusely if you say anything they take offense to inadvertently.

The other alternative is to simply step out of the game. Don't give a fuck about what the conservative media says, stick to your guns, and realize that a majority of Americans, if you keep driving the point home that 3100 american soldiers have died in a war that the Bush Administration created pretexts for entering and that we're no closer to winning (and doing irrepairable reputational damage with every day we continue to wage it), on some level already agree with you and will quite possibly come around to your viewpoint.

He's just knuckling under because he's not ready to take that chance yet. I think that's a mistake, as it'd immediately differentiate him from the rest of the Democratic hopefulls, who are willing to pay lip service to the fact that the war needs to end, but are too afraid of offending anyone (thus far) to actually take action.

[zimbloth]

I agree he shouldnt apologize and should have stuck to his guns. I just think it was not a smart thing to say in the first place. Luckily he said it in Feb 07 and not 2 weeks before the election. No one will remember this 6 months from now.

[Drew]

Why not? It's not a smart thing to say if you're playing by the conservative media rules, true.

But if you're a liberal candidate, is playing by the rules the conservative media plays by really that good an idea?

[Cancer]

Originally Posted by Drew

The other alternative is to simply step out of the game. Don't give a fuck about what the conservative media says, stick to your guns, and realize that a majority of Americans, if you keep driving the point home that 3100 american soldiers have died in a war that the Bush Administration created pretexts for entering and that we're no closer to winning (and doing irrepairable reputational damage with every day we continue to wage it), on some level already agree with you and will quite possibly come around to your viewpoint.

He's just knuckling under because he's not ready to take that chance yet. I think that's a mistake, as it'd immediately differentiate him from the rest of the Democratic hopefulls, who are willing to pay lip service to the fact that the war needs to end, but are too afraid of offending anyone (thus far) to actually take action.

Ross Perrot "stepped out of the game" which is exactly why I voted for him. I'm hoping Obama won't make a habit out of this, as this apology I get and understand (although I have no problem with what he said originally). If he ends up being a wuss though, I think that may cause him more problems.

Besides, that kind of backpedalling is insulting to the intelligence of anyone who got what you meant the first time, and say what you want about the average American, but I still believe there's enough "collective intelligence" to have the orginal intent of his statement understood.

...And here I thought his name would be the most of his problems.

[Mr. S]

i think he was right to say what he did and apologizing was just daft, i mean if you retract a statement like that it nullifies your original point and makes it seem like you think these 3,000 troops lives were lost for a legitimate reason, like drew said, he should have stuck to his guns

[Rev2010]

Originally Posted by zimbloth

I just think it was not a smart thing to say in the first place.

Well, if we really look at the facts so far we haven't "won" anything. And in all likelyhood we won't gain anything out of this Iraq war. If anything we'll probably wind up with more threats to US security and a country that will probably be eventually overrun by hardline extremists. If that all does turn out to be the case then yes, those lives will have been wasted. I'm with you guys, he shouldn't have apologized.


Rev.