More Than A Goal

As impressive, but hardly commendable, was Senator McCaskill's obfuscation on yesterday's Meet The Press relative to Barack Obama's position on the Iraq War. She stated (on page 2 of transcript):

He, he has a goal of 16 months, but obviously, the most important thing in getting out...
I mean, obviously, a goal is a goal, and he's been very clear that that's a goal. He's been very clear that he wants to be careful and reasonable about the way--in fact, his phrase is, "I want to be the opposite of what we were when we went in."

Except that it has been more than a "goal." Here is Senator Obama at the January, 2008 Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada (approximately halfway through):

I have opposed this war consistently. I have put forward a plan that will get our troops out by the end of 2009.

And here is a portion of Senator Obama's website:

Obama would immediately begin to pull out troops engaged in combat operations at a pace of one or two brigades every month, to be completed by the end of next year.

This, of course, is not as much a shift on the war as that of his opponent, who several times over the past few years has declared his fealty to the Bush war policy before recently finding it inconvenient. Still, it's a little discouraging that the presumptive Democratic nominee's zig-zag on major issues is benign only as compared to that of the unprepared, woefully ineffective candidate of the GOP.