Good plan, poor pitch

From the sound of testimony
from the administration’s war council on Capitol Hill yesterday, that
timeline is definitely flexible and seems more like a political carrot than a
firm deadline for withdrawal. But the announcement of both a surge and a
timeline for departure is still a contradiction. It is one that probably
makes the most sense with the circumstances and consequences we face in
Afghanistan, because we haven’t given the fight what it will
take, yet we cannot stay there forever.

Still, Obama didn’t
seem to make the sale on Tuesday night. As I wrote in my column this
week,
he didn’t seem to convey the resolve required to convince a war-weary public
that this contradition makes sense and that the battle is still worth an
additional 30,000 of our young men and women. You could imagine the firm
toughness a President Clinton would have shown in that speech, or the
gritty resolve a President McCain would have displayed, but Obama didn’t seem
aware that his doubts spread doubt. 

Vague on details and
lacking strong conviction that this time he has found a plan that will
work, Obama made a speech that probably doesn’t do his well-thought-out policy
the justice is deserves. Time will tell.

SHOULD DEMOCRATS PITCH ANOTHER $300 BILLION JOBS BILL? Ask A.B. returns Monday, December 7th. Please join my
weekly video Q&A by sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-release.digital-release.thehill.com.
Thank you.