One of the ten points by Thomas P. M. Barnett, writing in Esquire:
Obama’s 2012 campaign could be all about war.
If Petraeus says the strategy needs more time, then Obama’s running for re-election as a wartime president. Period. There’s just no way that Obama can overrule Petraeus on this one without wounding himself politically. McChrystal had been signaling that Obama’s summer 2011 deadline to begin withdrawing combat troops was too optimistic. Expect Petraeus to press that case — however subtly — from day one.
The idea that “wartime” as we know it would not be over by 2012 isn’t exactly a stunning thought to those of us who thought the war on terror would be a long, hard slog, with periods of intense fighting and periods of relative quiet. But this may be a rude awakening for the antiwar base of the Democratic party.