An Obama-Rama Afghan Speech Wrap-Up

I found a bunch of stuff out there that I just wanted to comment on regarding President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan last night (and I also posted here).

First, Media Matters tells us here about the decidedly mixed reactions from the corporate media chattering class, which is unsurprising I know.

All I would ask in response, though, is that, if things continue to go badly in Afghanistan now, the media at least extend to the Obama Administration the courtesy of concocting warm and fuzzy story lines despite what I’m sure will be tanking poll numbers (here are those for the Iraq surge; basically, do the same thing for Obama that they did for Former President Numbskull, as noted here).

Also, it seems that there has been some “push-back” from former Bushie Don “The Defense Secretary We Had, Not The One We Wish We Had” Rumsfeld over whether or not he ignored the request of his generals for additional troops (here), which I think is particularly amusing (in a “gallows humor” kind of way, I’ll admit) considering this.

Also, if you want the starkest proof you can imagine that the Afghan war was given short shrift in favor of Dubya’s Not-So-Excellent Iraq Adventure, click here, scroll halfway down the page to the green “Calling for Backup” graphic on the left, and click on it to expand it.

And not to be outdone among the “loyal opposition,” fellow Bushco alum Michael Gerson asks the following about Obama and the Iraq escalation here: “Can’t he just admit the surge worked?”

Um, I would say “asked and answered” based on this (and of course, Gerson can’t resist critiquing the speech because he didn’t write it, chastising the parts that are “self-referential”…it’s called lending a touch of humanity to the most difficult decision faced by a commander in chief, you shill).

Also, I give you former Laura Bush employee Andrew Malcolm here, who criticized Obama because “out of 4,582 words (of the speech), not one of them was victory.”

My, how clever.

In response, I should note that Dubya’s speech announcing the surge (here) contained nearly 3,000 words, many sentences and paragraphs and did in fact mention victory – twice. And given the Gallup poll I noted above, I think it speaks volumes as to how out of touch he was given that he used the phrase “coming home” only once and “return home” not at all.

Update 12/4/09: Too dumb for words - again (h/t Atrios)...

And finally, though we all hope and pray for a good outcome despite the evidence to the contrary, I have to tell you that this is not a good sign.