As much as I detest the phrase “defining moment” — a journalistic cliche that has is a pleasant as hearing blackboard chalk scrape — President Barack Obama now faces a….defining moment, in his presidency. Will he give Gen. Stanley McChrystal the 40,000 troops he says he needs to successfully fight the battle in Afghanistan?
In blogs, talk radio, TV and cable everyone is talking about what the General says he wants and putting their own spins on it.
Here is the text of a speech he gave in London — so you can read his line of thought for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
So what WILL Obama do? (Leave your predictions in comments if you want..)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.