Obama backtracks on Iraq ... and everything else

If you're keeping score on how many issues Sen. Barack Obama has flip-flopped since winning the Democratic Party nomination, you probably need some more paper.

So far, the "change" candidate has changed his mind on public financing of campaigns, on NAFTA, on wiretaps, on unconditional talks with Iran, on gun control, on welfare reform, on faith-based initiatives and on wearing a flag pin. Did I miss anything?

Obama's latest flip-flop is over Iraq. He's no longer saying he will withdraw America troops as soon as he becomes president. He's not even saying he'll do it gradually over 16 months. Now he's saying he will take the advice of commanders in Iraq, which sounds a lot like the Bush policy or the McCain strategy.

Columnist Charles Krauthammer examines Obama's ever-changing Iraq position in a column in Investor's Business Daily:

As Obama assiduously obliterates all differences with McCain on national security and social issues, he remains rightly confident that Bush fatigue, the lousy economy and his own charisma — he is easily the most dazzling political personality since John Kennedy — will carry him to the White House.

Of course, once he gets there he will have to figure out what he really believes. The conventional liberal/populist stuff he campaigned on during the primaries? Or the reversals he is so artfully offering up now?

Read the full column, "And Now, For Obama's Next Flip-Flop: Iraq" at the IBD Web site.