Obama backtracks...

I guess the real question is will the media hit him as hard as they have with other candidates who have made misquotes or misteps, or will the continued media presentation of the "rockstar candidate" allow him to avoid this for now. That was my first thought when reading the Washington Post article entitled, "Obama Questions Rivals on Iraq". I'm guessing from the headline alone that they are giving him the benefit of the doubt since while the article makes some focus on his statement that the troops lives were "wasted", the headline gives the impression that he differs on his belief on the War in Iraq. Unless I've missed something, he has voted for continuing to fund the war in Iraq. What I found really interesting was the way the Post covers the "backtracking":

He backtracked in an interview with the Des Moines Register, saying: "I was actually upset with myself. Their sacrifices are never wasted; that was sort of a slip of the tongue as I was speaking.

"The sacrifices they have made are unbelievable. What I meant to say was those sacrifices have not been honored by the same attention to strategy, diplomacy and honesty on the part of civilian leadership," he added.

So, we have the comments made to large groups of people many who are against the war then we have the later, "well I really didn't mean it that way I meant...."

He is however really good at promoting his book:

"I know that one of the running threads, one of the narratives that has established itself among the mainstream media, is this notion, 'Well, you know, Obama has pretty good style, he can deliver a pretty good speech, but he seems to prioritize rhetoric over substance,' " Obama said. "Now factually, that's incorrect."

He said his two best-selling books, each of which has sold nearly a million copies, "probably give people more insight into how I think and how I feel about issues facing America than any candidate in the field and probably any candidate who's run for office in recent memory."

I do agree with him though that the media has focused too much on stupid things like how he looks in a swimsuit or are his ears really big or not, and I hope that he does provide more substance and that it is treated with the same amount of inspection that the other presidential candidates can expect. I think the American public deserves that type of information.