Turning The Page

President Obama gave a measured address from the Oval Office in the White House tonight announcing the official end of combat operations in Iraq and how it's time to move on and put the war there behind us. He was very forceful in his declaration, and he was eager to thank the servicemen and servicewomen who sis all they were asked to do in the past seven years. He turned part of his focus to the need to rebuild the economy at home, and he stated that it's necessary to meet that challenge with the same fortitude and sacrifice that our troops showed in Iraq, in addition to noting that Afghanistan remains a war that al-Qaeda and the Taliban must not be allowed to win. He made it clear enough that the Iraq War was a drain on our resources, and that we have to build them up again to secure the liberty and prosperity that American troops have always fought for.

It was difficult for Obama - whose party faces a potential wipeout in November's congressional midterm elections - to strike the right balance between making a national speech and a political speech, and he did well enough. My only regret was that he didn't go farther. Rather than call out the neo-conservatives and war hawks who started this war for illegitimate reasons, he actually expressed the sincere interest his predecessor, George Walker Bush, showed for protecting and securing the nation, even though he did neither. (It was tantamount to a presidential pardon of Ford-esque proportions.) That was as far as he got in naming names. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and all the other neo-cons who got us into war on lies and predicted a glorious victory in Iraq were left unmentioned.

Other commentators will note that the Republicans who have blocked Obama's efforts to revive the economy - John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, and Jon Kyl - never came up in Obama's speech, but that would have been inappropriate, as partisanship in a speech about war can only go so far. But the President's emphasis on the economy and moving forward may signal a desire to start acting aggressively against those Republicans in Congress (i.e., most of them) who have stymied Obama's agenda and blame lack of progress with the economy on the Democrats.

Now that Obama has stressed his role as Commander-in-Chief, he needs to get back into campaign mode and come out swinging. His administration, the country, and the Democrats are in trouble.

Turn the page.