Sorry, that was a hit job on Obama by Mcgovern while giving a pass to Hillary?

MR. RUSSERT:  You were not in the Senate in October of 2002.  You did give a speech opposing the war.  But Senator Clinton's campaign will say since you've been a senator there's been no difference in your record.  And other critics will say that you've not been a leader against the war, and they point to this:  In July of `04, Barack Obama, "I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports.  What would I have done?  I don't know," in terms of how you would have voted on the war.  And then this:  "There's not much of a difference between my position on Iraq and George Bush's position at this stage." That was July of `04.  And this:  "I think" there's "some room for disagreement in that initial decision to vote for authorization of the war." It doesn't seem that you are firmly wedded against the war, and that you left some wiggle room that, if you had been in the Senate, you may have voted for it.

SEN. OBAMA:  Now, Tim, that first quote was made with an interview with a guy named Tim Russert on MEET THE PRESS during the convention when we had a nominee for the presidency and a vice president, both of whom had voted for the war.  And so it, it probably was the wrong time for me to be making a strong case against our party's nominees' decisions when it came to Iraq.

Look, I was opposed to this war in 2002, 2003, four, five, six and seven. What I was very clear about, even in 2002 in my original opposition, was once we were in, we were going to have to make some decisions to see how we could stabilize the situation and act responsibly.  And that's what I did through 2004, five and six, try to see can we create a workable government in Iraq? Can we make sure that we are minimizing the humanitarian costs in Iraq?  Can we make sure that our troops are safe in Iraq?  And that's what I have done. Finally, in 2006, 2007, we started to see that, even after an election, George Bush continued to want to pursue a course that didn't withdraw troops from Iraq but actually doubled down and initiated the surge.  And at that stage, I said, very clearly, not only have we not seen improvements, but we're actually worsening, potentially, a situation there.  And since that time I've been absolutely clear in terms of the approach that I would take.  I would end this war, and I would have our troops out within 16 months.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21738432/page/2/

The reality of electoral politics is that when a nominee is chosen, everyone from his/her VP choice on down has to bend over backwards to give the appearance of a united front.  In 2004, the way to end the Iraq war was to elect John Kerry.  Obama, having been put in the spotlight by John Kerry, would have been selfishly grandstanding had he then used the spotlight to call out Kerry's incoherent stance on the war.