Obama Splits In Two

Look to Real Politics.com in the coming days to show a steep decline in Obama's approval rating. His speech tonight at West Point, in which he will announce a "troop surge" in Afghanistan, may draw a standing ovation from noted liberals such as Karl Rove, but the disciples of Michael Moore, the actual liberal extreme, will gravitate away from this president like similar poles of two magnets brought into close proximity. And Karl Rove's brief approval will still never translate into a vote for an Obama re-election bid.

Democrats who play to the whims of a popular breeze will also likely exhibit at least a tepid disdain for the president's decision to placate the likes of Cindy Sheehan and try to portray their subsequent approval of the president's request as reluctant. But let's remember the mood of the Democrats who were so opposed to the Iraq War that they exploited the Afghanistan War to club President Bush.

They complained that the Iraq War - illegitimate as it was - was a distraction that ignored the "real terror bed", Afghanistan. Their argument was that we should have been concentrating our efforts, and by extension our troop levels, on the Poppy Kingdom.

During the run-up to the election of 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry - he of "the surge has failed in Iraq" fame - said on the Senate floor September 10th last year, "We know today that no more than a token shift of troop levels will take place until we have a new president committed to winning the war on terror by fighting the actual terrorists."

Would Reid consider Obama's offering of 75% of his commander's request a "token" shift? And why does Reid think that a smaller surge than requested will now miraculously be successful when he doubted General Petreus?

Perhaps the biggest question will be that, when the uber-liberal base finally jumps off the Obama ship, where will the Congressional Democrats be left standing? Will they follow the shallow lead of the Cindy Sheehan's or will they stand behind the empty suit in the Oval Office? And how will they react with one foot on the boat and one on the dock as the ship puts to sea?

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