Dems Starting To Face Reality On Iraq

I can't believe the MoveOn crowd is very happy with the major Dem candidates tonight:

HANOVER, N.H. — The leading Democratic presidential hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by 2013, the end of the next president's first term.

"I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state.

"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Sensing an opening, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson provided the assurances the others would not.

"I'll get the job done," said Dodd, while Richardson said he would make sure the troops were home by the end of his first year in office.

After months of promising to remove the troops and end the war the moment they take office, they've suddenly realized that if they actually try and do that, a disaster will result and they'll get the blame for it. When faced with the reality that one of them might inherit Iraq from Bush, those past promises suddenly look pretty dangerous (of course, they've always looked dangerous to me).

The nutroots will not be pleased.