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Obama's 'unacceptable' inaction

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By TOM JACKSON

Published: May 27, 2009

John Russell, the once and probable future candidate for congress has returned to the business of agitation. Only this time his target comes not from the pool of usual suspects (all Republicans, certain establishment Democrats), but is instead the one public official in the land whose election Russell regarded as more crucial than his own.

Yes. Four months into the era of hope-n-change, Russell, policy wonk and nurse practitioner from Dade City, has declared himself displeased with The One. In a letter circulated to his vast e-mail audience and posted at his Web site, Perpetual Candidate Russell mercilessly scolds President Barack Obama, mostly for being — on Iraq and Afghanistan — indistinguishable from his predecessor.

Regarding these military adventures, Russell demands a simple answer to a complicated question: "What is the plan?"

Except for those with "skin in the game," Russell says, "Iraq [is] … an opaque asterisk in the daily white noise" of the news cycle. Russell calls this "unacceptable." Well.

Enchanting interlude

Regarding Iraq's tumble from urgency in the national psyche, two factors, primarily, are at work, and neither favors adherents of the out-yesterday strategy.

First, Iraq has served its purpose. The issue that launched an insurgent candidacy, then morphed into a cudgel for smiting unapologetic Democratic rivals, then Sen. John McCain, receded about the time Ohio and Florida fell into the Obama column on Election Night.

Russell and friends are not aided by major media players reluctant to embarrass their choice for the White House with questions about when Obama will make good on, or even reveal his Iraq draw-down plans … not when they can ask, on national television, "What … enchanted you most from serving in this office?"

Second, Iraq has become Obama's to lose. It was not always thus, but the Bush-Petraeus surge shoved the idea of triumph past imaginable all the way to probable — assuming a steady hand.

What would Microsoft do?

On Afghanistan, Russell wants "objectives" that include "timeframes" ahead of Surge II, "just like any business endeavor."

Hmmm. With reconstituted Taliban forces — the folks who allowed safe haven to al Qaida while its generals plotted 9/11 — tipping the momentum, now would be a good time to ask: Was "business endeavor" the cold calculator FDR applied after the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor?

Nonetheless, on behalf of Obama's "most fervent supporters," Russell is alarmed. We are happy to note, for the record, his distress.

Keyword: The Jax Files, for Tom Jackson's bonus insights.

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