Obama Between Rock and Hard Place

Barack Obama is apparently starting to feel the discomfort that comes from being between a rock and a hard place:

If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops," Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday.

"My expectation is that we will continue to try to ratchet up the pressure on the president to change course," the Democratic presidential candidate said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't think that we will see a majority of the Senate vote to cut off funding at this stage."

Welcome, Senator, to the uncomfortable place between the voters that don't want to cut-and-run from Iraq, and the MoveOn/DailyKos/Cindy Sheehan folks that want to cut and run immediately, if not sooner.

According to Little Green Footballs, where Mr. Johnson apparently has the balls to go where I won't, namely into the bowels of Kosville, the frothing-at-the-mouth lefties are already starting to foam:

Markos “Screw Them” Moulitsas, on the other hand, is all about playing chicken with our troops. And he’s really seething at Obama: Daily Kos: Obama caves to Bush. (Hat tip: Ron.)

What a ridiculous thing to say. Not only is it bad policy, not only is it bad politics, it’s also a terrible negotiating approach.

Instead of threatening Bush with even more restrictions and daring him to veto funding for the troops out of pique, Barack just surrendered to him.

Let me repeat that — Obama just surrendered to Bush.

It's gonna be an interesting year and a half till election time, especially with the surge apparently starting to work. Now that victory looks possible, calls for retreat look, well, cowardly. But we already knew that anti-war folks are, at heart, cowards, didn't we?