I believe what Obama and Webb are attempting to do here is offer a "middle position" that centrists can be comfortable with on the surface. And despite the fact that I'm not always pleased with the attempt to do that, I understand that that's what needs to be done if we're going to move the majority of Americans to our side and to a more "left" position on Iraq.

Here's how I view the situation--

We have the symbolic "left" position represented by Feingold in the Senate and by the Progressive caucus in the House...those who stood their ground and voted against the Supplemental.

We have the Blue Dogs who are the "right" position (within our party) who are hesitant to set a date to cut funding for several reasons...one reason is that they live in districts where they won by less than 2% of the vote and many of those districts are VERY conservative- with a PVI of up to R+17. Moving any further to the left (without HUGE support for that move in their districts) will paint them as anti-war liberals and we will lose those districts...and with them, most of our majority. I'd prefer to build on that instead of losing it. So I'd prefer we work to convince those voters in their districts to move to the left.

In between we have a center. A group that is hesitant to withdraw troops now for fear of the consequences (what will be left behind in Iraq), but who also knows that we MUST withdraw the troops because what's happening now in Iraq is unacceptable and it isn't going to get any better. This is where the vast majority of Americans are. There is great nervousness when we talk here in the "Heartland" (I'm in Southern Illinois...45 minutes from Missouri, 45 minutes from Kentucky, and an hour or so from Indiana) about pulling out the troops right away. The automatic response is one of fear. Not just for the troops as they leave, but for the Iraqi people, and fear of terrorism- fear of Al Qaeda. We've talked about pulling out troops for their safety. People are on board with that. Everyone wants their kids home. What they aren't on board with is leaving Iraq a disaster and having Al Qaeda come in and use it as a breeding/training ground for more terrorism.

Obama (and Webb here) are attempting to fill this position, I believe. But while they attempt to fill this position, all three groups on the Democratic spectrum, left, right, and center-- have one specific agenda in common and that it to make Bush own this war. To make him OWN how he treats the troops. To show that he's willing, regardless of what the vast majority of Americans want...even if Congress has acted incredibly thoughtfully (i.e. the Obama position, we can call it)...that Bush will continue to jeopardize the lives of our troops. That he will attempt to leave them there without funding.

This doesn't reflect badly on Obama...or on any Democrat. The goal of this statement is to show how thoroughly thoughtless and careless Bush is with the lives of our soldiers. The more we show that to those folks in conservative areas, the more likely they will be to distrust Bush...the more likely they start to see that Blue Dog position, or even that Obama position, or hey, maybe even that "left" position as a viable option.