Larry's Stance on the War in Iraq

In 2005, Larry reached out to some of the local progressives to gain their support in the upcoming election. He addressed one progressive group in Charlotte that was eager for change and eager to do something to make that change. In his address to that group, he gave his position on the conflict in Iraq, which was essentially; since we had created the situation there, we were bound to stay as long as it took to make things right. This is otherwise known as the "Pottery Barn Argument."

Once his campaign discovered that this was a sticking point in getting the group's endorsement, a compromise was negotiated. A one year time-limit was established by his campaign for our obligation to Iraq. His website reflected this new deadline by titling his stance on this issue "Out in 2006."

The group, feeling that since Larry (if he should win) would be advocating immediate withdrawal by the time he became a congressperson (because it would be after his deadline had passed), endorsed his campaign and many people in the group became active in it, devoting their time, effort, and money.

On August 29, 2006, with what we thought was Larry's deadline only a few months away, Larry made a statement calling for our troops to be "out in one year." To some in the group supporting him, this seemed to be change in his promise of "Out in 2006."

When confronted about this discrepancy by his progressive supporters, the Kissell campaign argued that his position hadn't changed, that Larry had always said; "out in one year."

Yes, it was true that at the end of 2005 he said this, and during the fall of 2006 he was still saying this, but how did that jibe with his promise "Out in 2006" as expressed on his site?

It may seem to be a minor thing today (since we will be lucky to get out in two or three years), but some of the group felt he had misrepresented what he meant when he said it the first time, since the deadline now seemed to always be a year from whenever he talked about it. At least, the plain words on his site ("Out in 2006") seemed to be disingenuous. If his stance had always been "out in one year," his site should have said "Out in One Year (From Whenever I Talk About It)" instead of "Out in 2006."

In the light of what many in the group perceived as Larry's move to the right in some of his positions as the election grew near (his stance on immigration, his support for the Military Commissions Act, etc.), many progressives that had been supporting him felt they had been mislead.

As of this posting, Larry's site still says; "Out in 2006" although most of the text underneath was removed sometime after his August 29, 2006 announcement from what was there in the first part of 2006. The text that had been removed was replaced by a link to his August 29 announcement.

Here is a screen shot of his page at the time of this posting:




Note the item circled in red; "Iraq: Out in 2006" and below it where he says; "My position is out of Iraq by the end of 2006." Then it gives a link to his August 29, 2006 statement calling for our troops to be "out in one year."

Here is the current screen shot of that page:




I suspect that Larry's website may change after they discover this post; this is why I took screen shots. However, it may be interesting to check out now or in the future to see if they have. Therefore, I will also give the links to the pages above (although, the links might be changed in the future as well).

The link to the first page above is: http://www.larrykissell.com/issues/issues08.asp.

The link to the second page above is: http://www.larrykissell.com/issues/issues35.asp.