CNN notes Senator Carl Levin doesn't quite acknowledge his flip-flop on the Iraq surge:
KING: Having a good staff and a good library comes in handy when a politician says something now that doesn't match up with what they said back then. You remember the big political debate over President Bush should approve a surge of troops in Iraq. Among those who back at the time were talking December 2006 now said no, bad idea, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEVIN: I would oppose increasing forces. I think it would be a mistake because it gets us in deeper rather than getting us out and mainly because it's a political solution which is required here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That was then. This is now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEVIN: History will show that President Bush reached the right decision. It wasn't the only cause for the improved situation in Iraq, the extent it has improved. But nonetheless, he took the three months. No one pressured President Bush at that time to reach a decision more quickly than he felt he could.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We don't do that to embarrass Senator Levin. I do it to make the point that sometimes what you think at the moment especially when these debates get so political doesn't always turn out to be the right over time.
I don't believe Obama has yet acknowledged this forthrightly that he was wrong about the surge in Iraq.
