"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, what a Merry Christmas it would be."
~~the Danderoo

"If the Sunni Awakening had not occurred, and the Shia Stand Down had not transpired, then the Surge, which has been successful, would not have been successful in itself, and I would have been right when I predicted that the Surge would not be successful, as I did not anticipate the other components coming together in the way that they did."
~~the Obamaroo

You think I exaggerate? Only slightly for comic effect. Here is the actual quote from the exchange with Terry Moran of ABC News:

Moran: The Surge?

You opposed the Surge, staunchly.

Would you say, based on what you see here, that you were wrong in saying that twenty thousand troops would not make a significant dent in the violence? They have…

BARACK OBAMA: Here’s what I‘ll say, I did not anticipate the convergence of not only the surge, but the Sunni Awakening, in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decided they’d had enough with al Qaeda. In the Shia community the militias standing down to some degree. Had those political factors not occurred, I think my assessment would have been correct.

Moran: If you had it to do over again, knowing now what you do, would you support the Surge?

OBAMA: No because...

Moran: [incredulously] You wouldn’t?

OBAMA: What I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I disagreed with and continue to disagree with because it focused narrowly on Iraq and not these broader issues...

A Waco Farmer:
Say What?

Farmer's Note: I am linking the video of this exchange, which is available on the ABC Nightline website--but I have yet to see the transcript anywhere (I had to play the link repeatedly as I transcribed it myself). I also note that this exchange did not make the ABC web story summarizing the Moran/Obama interview. You will never hear me say "vast left-wing conspiracy," but this is the kind of coincidental lapse that makes it harder for me to convince my friends at the John Birch Society meetings that the mainstream media is really objective.