My friend David Skeel draws an interesting parallel between Bush's speech on stem cells and Obama's speech yesterday on Afghanistan, concluding:
There are at least two major differences between Bush’s compromises and Obama’s, however, and neither bodes well for the new policy. First, as David Brooks pointed out in a New York Times column several weeks ago, Obama’s stance seems intellectual and aloof rather than fully committed. Second, a compromise position on the war runs the risk of undermining the effect of the troop escalation altogether, since it seems to contemplate a prompt reversal. This may be one of those places were lukewarm is worse than either hot (a fully committed escalation) or cold (plans for a withdrawal).
