plan. he secretly enlisted joe biden to push his strategy that would have greatly reduced our role in afghanistan. he signed off on an additional 30,000 troops, despite the fact that he, president obama, was looking for a way out. and he set a withdrawal deadline so he wouldn t lose democratic party people. woodward s book and the intense struggles over the president s war plan is our top story tonight. plus, how s this for outrage? in the top health insurance companies have already found a way to not cover children with pre-existing conditions. they are simply dropping their policies designed exclusively for kids. is this a preview of 2014, when coverage is supposed to kick in for everyone under the health care plan? and are the democrats doing enough to keep the tea party from turning even big blue states red? a new poll has republican carl paladino, perhaps best known for its racist and pornographic e-mails within striking distance of democrat, andrew cuomo in the race for new y
by the military people to always hook the civilian leader into something that is going to drag them into a wider war. he seems to be a student of history, if not instinct here. he doesn t want to be captured by the people who are supposedly taking his orders. that s right. and i think right now, you really see that the december review is very likely now to be the be the first time that we get the that we start hearing about what the framework of what july 2011 really means. right now, july 2011 and that deadline means a lot of things to a lot of people. everybody seems to take what they want to hear from it, right? the military guys take from it, well, it is conditions based. well, some in the president s base and in the democratic party who don t want us to be there very long take it as, well, at least there is an end date. i think in december, we are now going to get a clearer picture of what july 2011 is. frankly, you can just tell from this book the president s instinct is
you know, the one that really surprised me, frankly, all the jim jones stuff, you have been hearing chatter about that for a long time. the most surprising thing was the apparent distrust between the secretary of defense gates and jim jones deputy, tom donelan, the fact that there is not a lot of trust there, because tom donelan is seen as somebody very trusted by the president, could be a replacement that one surprised me. that one surprised me, tom donelan a great guy. you know, very quickly, chris, i do think that this book, you see the steve ratner book, people leaving the administration, boy, i think you are going to start seeing the next six months, you are going to hear a lot of anonymous quotes, a lot more reporting about hand-wringing inside the west wing because the distrust between the staffers now. they see what somebody else said to woodward and they are going to feel like, you know what i will talk to reporters now. god, this is like the cherokee strip, isn t it?
thing is a lot more real than maybe was hinted at when they first rolled it out. but then again joe biden. i want to get to a couple of points, sorry, andrea. joe biden made a point this deadline is real a quote from joe biden in the book. a quote in joe biden s box. everybody talks out of school, i work here. there is a lot of kibbitzing any place you work, don t want to be held to it. bob woodward around, somebody will quote you and you are nailed for life, because as long as that other person lives, that book is on their shelf with your quote in it. here is joe biden talking about richard holbrooke the special afpak envoy. he s the most egotistical bastard i ve ever met. these kind of quotes. petraeus referring to david axelrod, the president s spin doctor. he called him a complete spin doctor. i guess that is what you are supposed to call a spin doctor. but a lot of these quotes are they going to cause trouble politically and in terms of policy or are they just the usual, a
mirrors what s happened so far on the economic team. chuck, you surprised by the bad blood here inside? you know, the one that really surprised me, frankly, all the jim jones stuff, you have been hearing chatter about that for a long time. the most surprising thing was the apparent distrust between the secretary of defense gates and jim jones deputy, tom donelan, the fact that there is not a lot of trust there, because tom donelan is seen as somebody very trusted by the president, could be a replacement that one surprised me. that one surprised me, tom donelan a great guy. you know, very quickly, chris, i do think that this book, you see the steve ratner book, people leaving the administration, boy, i think you are going to start seeing the next six months, you are going to hear a lot of anonymous quotes, a lot more reporting about hand-wringing inside the west wing because the distrust between the staffers now.