The Graceful Exit

Harry Reid recently made the huge mistake of endorsing an increase in troop levels in Iraq. He didn't mean it that way, he didn't even say it that way. But this debate over public policy is not rational. This is all won and lost on appearances and spin. Reid's position could be portrayed as being in favor of W's, McCain's, and Lieberman's "plan" to "deal" with their failed war without having to end it and without admitting that it failed.

Now I see that at HuffPo (via), Reid has walked back from that position. An extremely screwed-up thing in our governo-media-sphere is that it is suicidally bad to ever change your mind about something. This owes to the very public nature of a politician's positions and to the fact that, again, this is not a rational debate.

Reid has astutely 1) seen the error of his ways, and 2) found cover for quickly recovering a) without being a flip-flopper and b) with a stark contrast to the president's flip-flop (W was for listening to the experts (supposedly) before he was against it). Reid has pointed to the Pentagon generals' lack of support for a troop increase as justification for withdrawing the position he took that could have been used as cover by the insane people pressing for more death.

The funny thing is the ISG was supposed to provide cover to W for something that everyone could pretend was a graceful exit from Iraq. Instead, it highlights all the more how wrong W is.