“Barack Obama’s July 3 statement that he would ‘continue to refine’ his policy on Iraq based on a ‘thorough assessment’ of conditions on the ground and more information from military commanders prompted howls of protest (and a few cheers) from across the political spectrum. Antiwar activists worried that he was softening his earlier commitment to end the Iraq War on a fixed timetable; Republicans accused him of flip-flopping. Meanwhile, a rising chorus of establishment voices applauded Obama’s comment as a step toward a ‘reasonable position’ based on an open-ended policy of ‘conditional engagement.’ Faced with such obsessive parsing of his remark — based on the premise that Obama had shifted course — the candidate was forced to the podium (and the New York Times op-ed page) to clarify.” (07/16/08)