8:29 PM … Still stuck on the July 2011 target for beginning withdrawal. That gives him a year with all the additional troops on the ground. Of course that date is pegged to “conditions on the ground.” Where have I heard that before?

8:31 PM … As the Afghanis stand up, we will stand down?

8:34 PM … I know many progressives are disenchanted with this decision, but I’m struck again by how Obama is crafting a new progressive narrative for foreign policy and national security. Not just reality-based, though it is that. But an affirmative, positive rationale. Not a reaction to the conservative foreign policy orthodoxy, though it certainly acknowledges it.

David Kurtz

David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.