Setting the record straight - Obama, the IWR and "I don't know"

[SOS]

We recently had a number of threads regarding a comment which was made by Barack Obama in 2004.

The comment in question: "When asked in 2004 about how he would have voted on the IWR, Obama is reported to have said "I don't know"".
This is grossly out of context and requires clarification.

It all started in the apartment of billionaire Keith Kantrowitz, who was hosting a fundraiser for Hillary...

From the NY Post (edit):

March 16, 2007 --
At a fund-raiser Tuesday night at the Trump World Tower apartment of mortgage mogul Keith Kantrowitz, the former president spoke for two hours to a select group that had contributed the maximum $2,300 to Hillary's presidential campaign.
"He said his wife wasn't getting a fair shake from the Times," said Curtis Sliwa, the WABC Radio host, who was there as a guest.
Clinton focused on the fact that three years ago - shortly after* Barack Obama burst onto the world stage with his speech at the Democratic National Convention where John Kerry was nominated - Obama was asked how he would have voted on the Iraq war if he'd been in Congress at that time.
"And Obama said, 'I'm not sure,' " Sliwa recalled. "Clinton said the Times has a duty to report on Obama's initial ambivalence."
(* incorrect, it was before the convention)

Now for the truth. The quote "I'm not sure" (incorrect in the Post, actual was "I don't know") was indeed spoken by Obama.
However, going back to the July 26, 2004 edition of the New York Times, we get a very different picture.
The article was a profile of Obama shortly before his keynote speech at the convention. Here's the relevant portion from the Times article:

"One point listeners are unlikely to hear is his opposition in 2002 to Congress's approval of the war in Iraq. Senators John Kerry and John Edwards voted to authorize it.
In a recent interview, he declined to criticize Senators Kerry and Edwards for voting to authorize the war, although he said he would not have done the same based on the information he had at the time.
''But, I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports,'' Mr. Obama said. ''What would I have done? I don't know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made.''
But Mr. Obama said he did fault Democratic leaders for failing to ask enough tough questions of the Bush administration to force it to prove its case for war. ''What I don't think was appropriate was the degree to which Congress gave the president a pass on this,'' he said."

Of course, Curtis Sliwa and the NY Post are unreliable sources for information on Democrats.
But the "I don't know" comment has been circulating ever since and it is patently false and misleading when parsed out of the full text of Obama's comments.

The actual full quote was: ''What would I have done? I don't know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made.''

Editing out half of Obama's response is disingenuous. At best.
Let's discuss the IWR without contorting the facts on record.

Links:
NYT:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E2DF153DF935A15754C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
NY Post:
http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/03162007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm

[nevergiveup]

1. Anyone who has read

Obama's Oct. 2002 speech could gather that this quote was taken out of context. If they are going to debunk Obama's consistent opposition to this war they are going to have to do better than this.

[papau]

2. Nice documentation - but it's still "I don't know" & "not privy to Senate intelligence reports"-both

are honest answers and in my opinion do him no harm.

But they do mute a bit the "he was right from the start" - but it is muted only a bit.

[SOS]

3. Times revisits controversy - Thursday 3/22/07

Interesting article today in regard to this issue:

"Indeed, reporters asked Mr. Obama about the Democratic presidential ticket throughout the 2004 campaign, because Senators John Kerry and John Edwards had both voted for the Iraq war resolution. In an interview with The New York Times in July 2004, he declined to criticize Mr. Kerry or Mr. Edwards over the Iraq vote, but also said that he would not have voted as they had based on the information he had at the time.
"But, I'm not privy to the Senate intelligence reports," Mr. Obama said. "What would I have done? I don't know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made."
The Clinton campaign has lifted part of that comment - "I don't know" - to question whether Mr. Obama would have opposed the war resolution had he been in the Senate at the time.
In an interview yesterday, Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, was asked eight times to explain Mr. Obama's "I don't know" remark on Iraq. Mr. Burton repeatedly returned to the last sentence in the remark - that Mr. Obama believed the case for war was not made.
Mr. Burton also said Mr. Clinton was "100 percent inaccurate" in suggesting that Mr. Obama was ever ambivalent about Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/us/politics/22obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print