Politico buries the most important lead, from a political perspective, to come out of the WikiLeads document dump:
Obama’s not fighting it.
Gibbs has said the disclosure has the “potential to be very harmful.” But he’s engaging on the merits, not trying to bury them. Compare this with the certain reaction of the Bush administration, had this dump happened on their watch. Bottom line: this is an administration with a more basic respect for what democracy means.
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Or it could be that he wants an excuse to leave Afghanistan and this would begin building momentum. I’m not opposed to that strategy but I think assuming this is just about transparency may be a bit short-sighted.
Posted by Mike | July 27, 2010, 8:24 amI don’t think its about transparency at all – if it were, much of this would be available in some form to journalists and the public. I also don’t buy that this is an exit strategy – too many on the Right are still defining “victory” in Afghanistan and Iraq in the classic battle winning way, and Mr. Obama needs those folks for too many of his policy and political initiatives to risk ticking them off over the war. I think Mr. Obama does recognize, however, that after 8 years of spending blood and mammon in the region, Americans are tired and want to move on, and he recognizes that denying what the Washington Post today called the obvious is only to sink him further. This is about his political survival, and nothing more.
Posted by Philip H | July 27, 2010, 8:38 am