OBAMA ATTACKS: Gen. Wesley Clark calls it "insulting"

Today after Barack Obama's closing argument speech in Iowa, Obama adviser David Axelrod parried questions from reporters who pressed him
on whether the killing could help Hillary.

Here's one key exchange:

REPORTER: But looking ahead, does the assassination put on the front burner foreign policy credentials in the closing days?

AXELROD: Well, it puts on the table foreign policy judgment, and that's a discussion we welcome. Barack Obama had the judgment to oppose the
war in Iraq, and he warned at the time it would divert us from Afghanistan and al Qaeda, and now we see the effect of that. Al Qaeda's resurgent,
they're a powerful force now in Pakistan, they may have been involved -- we've been here, so I don't know whether the news has been updated,
but there's a suspicion they may have been involved in this.

I think his judgment was good. Senator Clinton made a different judgment, so let's have that discussion.

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/obama_adviser_bhutto_assassination_reminds_us_that_hillary_made_wrong_call_on_iraq_war.php

"Obama Tops Final Democratic Power Rankings, Edwards and Clinton Tie for Second"

Today, Iowa Independent releases its final round of power rankings, designed to answer the question, "If the caucuses were held tonight,
what would be the results?" The rankings are derived from impressions we received from activists, campaign officials, seasoned political
observers, and rank-and-file caucus-goers, but at the most basic level, they are based on the gut feelings and instincts of our writers,
who have watched the race unfold here from the beginning.

A lot can change in six days, and we expect that it will. But if the caucuses were held tonight, this is how we think they would turn out:

First Place

Barack Obama -- The Obama campaign's ability to build a crowd is its greatest asset. The Illinois senator consistently seems to draw larger
crowds than his opponents in the same places, which speaks both to the strength of his campaign's organization and the enthusiasm his
candidacy seems to generate. And his wave of small-town newspaper endorsements should enhance his second-choice support in rural
parts of the state where he has been perceived as weak. If the caucuses were held tonight, Obama would pull off a narrow victory.

Second Place

(tie) Hillary Clinton -- The Clinton campaign's ambitious "Every County Counts" tour the week before Christmas was not without errors, but
its lasting impact seems to be that it firmed up some of the campaign's softer support and drew new caucus-goers in to hear what Clinton
had to say. That, in combination with the Des Moines Register's endorsement and the extraordinary efforts of independent groups like
Emily's List and AFSCME, would put Clinton in second place if the caucuses were held tonight.

(tie) John Edwards -- Edwards's greatest asset is the foundation he began building over a year ago. He has lost some of the activists he
recruited early on to other campaigns, but in recent weeks his constant campaigning has firmed up his base. His supporters are likely to
caucus, and many of them are experienced activists who know what it takes to get out the vote. If the caucuses were held tonight, we
think he would finish second.


http://iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1732

America is plagued by a self-anointed, highly influential, and insular so-called Foreign Policy Community which spans both political parties.
They consider themselves Extremely Serious and have a whole litany of decades-old orthodoxies which one must embrace lest one be declared
irresponsible, naive and unserious. Most of these orthodoxies are ossified 50-year-old relics from the Cold War, and the rest are designed to
place off limits from debate the question of whether the U.S. should continue to act as an imperial force, ruling the world with its superior
military power.

Most of the recent "controversies" involving Barack Obama's foreign policy statements -- including his oh-so-shocking statement that it would
not make moral or political sense to use tactical nuclear weapons to bomb isolated terrorist camps as well as his willingness to attack Al Qaeda
elements inside Pakistan if the Musharraf government refuses (as they did for some time) -- were not "controversial" among the Establishment
on the merits. They were "controversial" (and "naive" and "irresponsible") because they breached the protocols and orthodoxies imposed by the
Foreign Policy Community governing how we are allowed to talk about these issues.

This was vividly illustrated by the sharpest exchange from last night's debate, where both Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd excoriated Obama for
his comments on Pakistan, not on the ground that Obama's statements were wrong on the merits (i.e, not that we should avoid military action
inside Pakistan under those circumstances), but instead on the ground that he committed the sin of actually discussing with the American people
what our foreign policy would be.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/08/powers/index.html

Today after Barack Obama's closing argument speech in Iowa, Obama adviser David Axelrod parried questions from reporters who pressed him
on whether the killing could help Hillary.

Here's one key exchange:

REPORTER: But looking ahead, does the assassination put on the front burner foreign policy credentials in the closing days?

AXELROD: Well, it puts on the table foreign policy judgment, and that's a discussion we welcome. Barack Obama had the judgment to oppose the
war in Iraq, and he warned at the time it would divert us from Afghanistan and al Qaeda, and now we see the effect of that. Al Qaeda's resurgent,
they're a powerful force now in Pakistan, they may have been involved -- we've been here, so I don't know whether the news has been updated,
but there's a suspicion they may have been involved in this.

I think his judgment was good. Senator Clinton made a different judgment, so let's have that discussion.

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/obama_adviser_bhutto_assassination_reminds_us_that_hillary_made_wrong_call_on_iraq_war.php