Barack Throws Obama Under Bus

Senator Barack Obama threw himself under the bus over the weekend, and then this morning backed up and drove over the body a couple of times for good measure.

In a move reminiscent of leftists the world over, the presumptive Democrat candidate for president scrubbed his website of all previous references to the "failed surge" in Iraq in favor of a new history.

Prior to this weekend, Obama's website described the surge as a "problem" that is "not working," but crediting Sunni sheiks for the progress in Anbar. (See What a Greeting He Got on the Sands of Anbar! and "A Rare Success" in The New York Times).

Now he praises the "hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics and enormous sacrifice" of American troops (but not their leader for changing commanders and approving new tactics against the stiff opposition of, among others, Senator Obama) for an "improved security situation." The site erased his previous comments.

The difficulty? We're reminded yet again that Senator Obama cannot admit, nor likely accept, his errors or even that circumstances sometimes change beyond his expectations.

The first steps to learning are admitting the times we're wrong. It is a skill that doesn't exist in Senator Obama's personal toolkit. His is a facile mouth in service of a one-track mind.

UPDATE: Greg Pollowitz adds some meat over at NRO's media blog:

The old website said

Anbar Province Success Not Related to Surge: The reduced violence in Anbar Province is the result of cooperation between American forces and Sunni tribes, which started more than 18 months ago, long before the surge. The province is overwhelmingly Sunni, and the tribal leaders there made a political decision to turn against al Qaeda. This does not demonstrate the success of the surge; it demonstrates that the solutions in Iraq are political, not military.

And

All Combat Troops Redeployed by 2009: Barack Obama would immediately begin redeploying American troops from Iraq. The withdrawal would be strategic and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Troops would be removed from secure areas first, with troops remaining longer in more volatile areas. The drawdown would begin immediately with one to two combat brigades redeploying each month and all troops engaged in combat operations out by the end of next year.

That's all gone, replaced with

Barack Obama said Monday he would set a goal of having all U.S. combat brigades out of Iraq by summer 2010 and shift more resources to fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Senator Obama is a 1960's leftist wrapped in shape-shifting polymer packaging.