During last Sunday's blitz on the talk shows (excluding Fox News), President Obama was asked, during his CBS interview with Bob Schieffer, about a leaked report that General Stanley McChrystal was asking for 45,000 additional troops in Afghanistan, warning that the failure to provide the troops would result in failure. The following is from the transcript:
Schieffer: Well if he asked you for that many troops, you're going to have a hard time saying no, are you not?
Obama: Let's be clear, my central focus is, what are we doing to protect the American people and the American homeland? Afghanistan and Pakistan are critical elements in that process but the only reason I send a single young man or woman in uniform anywhere in the world is because I think it's necessary to keep us safe. And so whatever decisions I make are going to be based first on a strategy to keep us safe, then we'll figure out how to resource it. We're not gonna put the cart before the horse and just think by sending more troops we're automatically going to make Americans safe.
Follow-Up Not Asked: Mr. President, you are obviously aware of your overwhelming responsibility when sending a "single man or woman in uniform anywhere in the world," but wouldn't that also make you responsible for keeping those young men and women already sent as safe as possible and as well equipped as possible? How would you explain to the parents of a young man or woman who does not return from Afghanistan that you had not acted on the professional (rather than political) advice of your top generals and sent the additional troops who could have been watching the back of their son or daughter?
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In his interview the same day with George Stephanopoulos of ABC, Obama got into a debate over the definition of the word "tax." Stephanopoulos finally read the official definition of "tax" from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and Obama's reply was reminiscent of the famous presidential retort: "It depends on what the meaning of the word "is," "is." Stephanopoulos had called the mandate to purchase insurance a tax increase, and Obama replied in his usual way. The following is from the transcript:
OBAMA: No, but... but, George, you... you can't just make up that language and decide that that's called a tax increase.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I... I don't think I'm making it up. Merriam Webster's Dictionary: Tax..."a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes."
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam's Dictionary, the... definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you're stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to the... dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what...
Follow-Up Not Asked: OK, Mr. President, since you do not agree with the definition provided by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, what exactly is your definition of the word "tax"?
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