Petraeus's Plan Kicks Iraq Over into 2008

McClatchey News Service has a story up on its website about how Petraeus is kicking Iraq into the 2008 campaign. This has both good and bad points for both political parties. The good for the Democrats is that the issue of the Iraq War will probably be the number one issue in the 2008 campaign for control of the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. The bad news is that if Republicans can get Bush to withdraw a significant amount of troops before the 2008 election, the Republicans can try to portray themselves as the Party who actually got us out of Iraq. Of course, for Republicans, the situation is just the opposite.

This is a quote from the article linked to above:

That's where Petraeus creates both opportunity and challenge for the Democrats as well.

His plan would leave 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq until next August at least, as many as were there in January, three months after Democrats won control of Congress largely on an end-the-war platform. That could stamp the Republican brand name even more emphatically on sustaining a woefully unpopular war. And that could be enough to persuade war-weary voters to give Democrats victory next year.

But if Dowd is right about voters wanting some party — either party — to get the troops out, then the Democrats have a problem: They must reconcile their followers' urge to set a deadline now for quick withdrawal with their congressional leaders' calculation that they can't enact a deadline over Bush's veto power without first getting some Republicans to sign on.

That conflict is building strains in the Democratic Party. And Petraeus' presentation put more pressure on that fault line.

The presidential campaign of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., for example, hit rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on Tuesday for not committing to vote for a fixed, enforceable timetable for withdrawal.