Biden and Obama on Iraq
In addition to questions about Joe Biden’s position on Iraq in 2002-2003 a lot of people are wondering what happened to Joe Biden’s forward-looking proposal for Iraq. His plan, which has oft been characterized as a scheme of “partition” or “soft partition” but which he and Les Gelb deemed “Unity Through Autonomy in Iraq”, was unveiled in the Spring of 2006 and called, basically, for political authority in Iraq to be dramatically decentralized so as to reduce the stakes in ethnosectarian tensions. The relevant model would be, I think, Switzerland though obviously there are a lot of aspects of Swiss political cultural and the Swiss institutional framework that you couldn’t just port over to Iraq.
At any rate, it’s been quite some time since Biden was really pushing the plan hard and it was — and is — basically a non-starter with Iraqi political leaders, so where does that leave him now? Well, Glenn Thrush and Avi Zenilman have an excellent reported article in Politico about Biden, Obama, and Iraq. They report that “since January, when Biden dropped out of the presidential race, he and Obama have quietly worked to smooth over their disagreements — and Biden has sought to erase divisions between the two of them on Iraq, sources say.” Specifically:
Biden and Obama are now in nearly total agreement on the war, with both advocating a staged withdrawal of most troops within 16 months of inauguration day. Obama has even shed some of his initial misgivings about Biden’s three-region solution, saying he’d be open to the plan if Iraqis themselves signed off on it. Biden doesn’t talk about the plan much anymore, but he still supports it, aides say, and believes it will “organically” evolve as Iraq’s political structure.
Even before Biden’s name rose to the top of veep heap, there were signs of increasing coordination. Prior to Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s Capitol Hill testimony in April, Biden and Obama huddled privately to map out lines of questioning, according to a Biden insider.
They report that the rapprochement has largely been engineered by cooperation between Susan Rice and Tony Blinken, who’s Biden’s go-to guy on the Foreign Relations committee staff. Rice and Blinken worked together in the Clinton administration. Thrush and Zenilman report that “several months ago, Rice invited Blinken to work with her on the Democratic Party’s foreign policy platform” and Steve Clemons noted that Blinken went “on vacation” in Hawaii at the exact same time as Obama did.
36 Responses to “Biden and Obama on Iraq”
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August 25th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Surely this is beside the point, since The Surge ™ fixed all important problems in Iraq, ever, and thanks to its absolute and perfect success, no ethnic cleansing ever happened, so Biden’s concerns were just more traitorous arugula-munching surrender-cratting.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I’m actually pretty curious to see how Matthew is going to cover Biden, as Biden is the kind of foreign policy Democrat that Matthew wrote his book against.
Sure Matthew can write stenography about how Team Chicago tells the fp left that Biden has changed his stripes, but y’know, the dude will be one heartbeat away from CiC if they win.
If Edwards had gotten the nomination and picked Biden as his VP, (which he wouldn’t have), I hope I would’ve loudly have objected on domestic policy grounds.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:23 am
2: Sure, in some sense this will be interesting. But how much criticism do you really expect? Most liberals buy into the very reasonable view that at this stage in electoral politics, electing the democratic nominee is the most important thing to do. It’s hardly an ill-considered position, either.
More importantly, did you read his earlier post criticizing Biden as a VP pick before the fact? I’m betting that’s all you’re going to get.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Despite the Dems and the allied main stream media’s desperation to see Romney as McCain’s Veep, Mitt is clearly out, with (1) Obama doubling down on the class warfare theme (McCain’s 7 houses) and (2) McCain doubling down with ads showing the hypocrisy of Biden attacking Obama in the primaries — Romney did way more than that contra McCain.
This leaves only Govs Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty. Pro-abortion Ridge and Dem-Lieberman were never real considerations, despite relentless media goading. Pawlenty’s lackluster TV performances, coupled with Palin pizzazz, the primacy of oil drilling and the ticked off women/Hillary voters, does now portend a McCain/Palin checkmate on the Dems. This is so albeit the Dems and liberal media dare not mention Palin’s name, that is, everyone but…..
And if there’s any question as to Palin being uniquely positioned and able to more than nullify Biden in debate, see the excellent discussion at palinforvp.blogspot.com
Team McCain, well done!!!
August 25th, 2008 at 10:33 am
“Most liberals buy into the very reasonable view that at this stage in electoral politics, electing the democratic nominee is the most important thing to do.”
Meh.
A strong Democratic Congress to stalemate a Republican President and a ticket that is less moored to the Democratic Party than any since 1976 combine for an election that is bizarrely inconsequential for actual progressives.
Of course, Matthew is determined to be “helpful” regardless of the merits, and I believe his job depends on his “helpfulness”, so I expect that’s what we’ll get. But still, if I had Matthew’s foreign policy convictions, I’d take the Biden pick as a slap in the face and report it that way.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:36 am
This article by Reidar Visser is a must-read:
http://www.historiae.org/obama.asp
August 25th, 2008 at 10:44 am
How on earth is this ticket less moored to the Democratic Party than fucking Clinton/Gore?
And, more broadly, fuck you Petey.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:50 am
If Obama/Biden–or anyone else–wants to pursue a federal system in Iraq, they would do well to actually consult with the Swiss or Canadians who know a little something about running a federation. Or for that matter, the Belgians, who know how NOT to run a federation.
Alas, why do I suspect that no American administration is capable of looking outside of its own pool of advisers?
August 25th, 2008 at 10:51 am
“How on earth is this ticket less moored to the Democratic Party than fucking Clinton/Gore? And, more broadly, fuck you Petey.”
Some folks care about policy. Some folks care about telling people to go fuck themselves. We’re just different that way.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Well, I’m glad the partition of Iraq 1947 style is off the table.
Petey spent the whole 2004 election lecturing us liberals on how we had to shut up and sit down if we wanted southern white racist conservatives to vote Democratic. Pay him no mind.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:10 am
“Petey spent the whole 2004 election lecturing us liberals on how we had to shut up and sit down if we wanted…”
The 2004 election had much higher stakes than this election, since the GOP controlled Congress and since Bush was 200% crazier than McCain. Also, Kerry at least was willing to run as a Democrat rather than as a “post-partisan”.
I think this is the first Presidential election since 1976 where the “shut up and sit down” mantra doesn’t apply to disaffected lefties.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Perhaps commuting between Delaware and the Senate, with a peek along the way at the permanent inhabitants of Washington, he saw how well partitioning America by race has worked out. Why not try it on ethnic divisions in another country? Sure, it’d take more work when they’re mingled, when Shiites are divided among themselves, when both Shiites and Sunni would agree in their anger at any independence for the Kurds, and when that’d threaten Turkey as well. But a few more years of war, refugees, and walled compounds could pull off de facto wonders.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:12 am
What Marshall said.
Petey, you’re the nuttiest poster on the intertubes. Get help now.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Are you really expecting an election that produces 60 Democratic Senators and McCain as President? Without 60 Dems in the Senate, Harry “Know-when-to-fold’em” Reid will carry on as he has.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Did Obama have a Jimmy the Greek moment?
http://pledgednotbound.com/racialist.htm
.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
If Edwards had gotten the nomination and picked Biden as his VP, (which he wouldn’t have), I hope I would’ve loudly have objected on domestic policy grounds.
Thank Zeus he didn’t! We’d be neck deep in 24/7 scandalthon, 20 points behind McCain, and the Dem convention would be either frought with interparty strife or mired in depression.
I would hope you’d show a little humility, Petey, and shut your yap after you were oh-so-wrong about Johnny Sunshine.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
“Are you really expecting an election that produces 60 Democratic Senators and McCain as President?”
No. But a Democratic Congress with the likely 56 or 57 seats will get nothing major passed under either an Obama Presidency due to his “post-partisan” Jimmy Carter schtick, or a McCain Presidency due to the Congress’s opposition.
Under Obama we’d have the ‘77-’78 Congress, and under McCain we’d have the ‘89-’90 Congress. Same difference. Nothing gets passed.
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