"The Bush speech: responses" (with videos)

Ben Smith:

The only tension between the Democrats here is between senators -- Obama and Clinton -- who are leaving the door at least a crack open to a compromise crafted by Congressional leadership, and the rest, who are replaying the demand from the Spring to deny Bush funding for the war, despite the lack of a 60 vote super-majority. Nobody's buying Petraeus.

CLINTON: "Regrettably, the President did not seize the opportunity tonight to offer the American people a candid assessment of the challenges that we continue to face in Iraq, or offer a change in course to his failing strategy. Instead, he portrayed an unavoidable reduction in U.S. troops to pre-surge levels as a marker of progress. Redeploying over the next year five of the twenty combat brigades currently deployed in Iraq will merely bring our total number of troops back to the same level that existed before the President announced his escalation in January of this year. As was discussed during General Petraeus's testimony this week, troop levels in Iraq must decrease by this amount regardless, in order to avoid extending Army deployments beyond 15 months and straining our military even further than it already is.

What the President told the American people tonight is that one year from now, there will be the same number of troops in Iraq as there were one year ago. That is simply too little too late, and unacceptable to this Congress and the American people who have made clear their strong desire to bring our brave troops home.

The Commander-in-Chief has the authority to issue the order to greatly accelerate the redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq, and to bring so many more of our troops home so much faster. They have done everything we have asked of them and more, but are now stuck in the middle of a civil war. I continue to implore the President to change course, bring our troops home faster, and end this war responsibly as soon as possible."

OBAMA: “It is long past time to end a war that never should have started. President Bush was wrong when he took us to war, he was wrong when he escalated this war in January, and he is wrong to stay the course now. I opposed this war from the beginning, I introduced legislation in January that would have already started to bring our troops home, and I will continue to lead the fight in the Senate for a fixed timeline with a deadline for the removal of all of our combat troops. The American people are not going to be fooled by the same false promises of success that got us into Iraq. Iraq’s leaders are not making the political progress that was the stated purpose of the surge, but the President wants us to keep giving him a blank check. We must not continue the enormous sacrifice of our troops, our military readiness, our treasury, and our standing in the world just to keep the violence at the same unacceptable levels it was at in 2005 and 2006. That is why I have proposed an immediate and sustained removal of 1 to 2 combat brigades each month to conclude by the end of next year. We have to come together – not as Republicans and Democrats – but as Americans to turn the page in Iraq so that we can recapture our unity of purpose at home and our leadership around the world.”

RICHARDSON: "Enough is enough. This President lacks credibility. President Bush needs to stop putting his historical legacy ahead of the safety of our troops and the security of our nation.

"As of next summer, the President plans to have 130,000 troops in the midst of a civil war in Iraq. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards would leave between 60,000 and 90,000 troops in Iraq with no timetable for a full withdrawal. All of these plans are unacceptable. We must get all of our troops out of Iraq in six to eight months.

"After years of President Bush's reckless mismanagement of the war in Iraq, there is only one responsible course of action left to us. We need to get all of our troops out of Iraq, not just the combat troops as others have suggested, and leave no residual forces behind. Our troops have done everything asked of them, but the solution in Iraq involves diplomacy, not military force. Leaving troops behind would serve as a roadblock to political progress. The hard work of diplomacy and reconciliation cannot begin until we start to withdraw our troops and make it clear that we are leaving. If Congress does not join me and get all of our troops out of Iraq, I will show them the way once I am elected President."

And BIDEN has video and text here.

EDWARDS:

This week - as we will forever - we remember those lost on September 11th. And this week, Washington refocuses on Iraq. But the question of Iraq is separate from September 11th – as it has always been, whatever George Bush would have us believe.

Likewise, supporting our troops and pursuing a failed war are not the same things – whatever George Bush would have us believe.

All Americans honor the incredible sacrifice of our troops. They have done everything asked of them with courage and resolve. Now we should bring them home.

They are policing a civil war, and the only way to end that civil war is for both sides, Sunni and Shia, to take responsibility to end it by agreeing to a political solution. And the only way to force them to take responsibility is to withdraw our troops – starting now.

Unfortunately, the president is pressing on with the only strategy he has ever had – more time, more troops and more war.

In January, after years of evidence that military actions cannot force a political solution, the president announced a military surge to force a political solution. In May, he vetoed a plan to end the war, demanded more time to show the surge could work, and Congress gave it to him. Now, after General Petraeus reports the surge has produced no progress toward a political solution, what does the president want? More time for the surge to work, when we know it won't.

Our troops are stuck between a president without a plan to succeed and a Congress without the courage to bring them home.

But Congress must answer to the American people. Tell Congress you know the truth - they have the power to end this war and you expect them to use it. When the president asks for more money and more time, Congress needs to tell him he only gets one choice: a firm timeline for withdrawal.

No timeline, no funding. No excuses.

It is time to end this war.

Howie P.S.: Think On These Things disputes Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller and asks "Is Edwards Different From Obama On Withdrawing Residual Troops?" Steven D (Booman Tribune) says "Kudos to Barack Obama" because he "flat out opposes any war with Iran."