re: #427 tradewind

It’s the perception. Obama voted against the surge in 2007 , and spoke out against it ( and by association, Petraeus) loudly.
The young/new/first-time voters who turned out for him were sure he was the Make love Not War prez, the anti-Bush. Now that he’s hanging in there, many of them are just demoralized.

The Make Love Not War crowd were young folks who became motivated by him, but if you listened to his speeches, he was clear. In talking about the timetable in Iraq, he pumped up his anti-war stance. That was campaigning, of course, but he didn’t talk about withdrawing from Afghanistan.