Kurtz misrepresented Obama's 2004 remark on Iraq war stance

On the January 13 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, host and Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz claimed that in a 2004 Chicago Tribune article, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "said there wasn't much difference between his position and George Bush's position on the [Iraq] war."

But Kurtz left out three key words from Obama's quote in the Tribune -- "at this stage" -- as well as the context of his remarks provided in the Tribune article, both of which indicate that Obama was discussing how best to stabilize Iraq from mid-2004 onward. Obama was not, as Kurtz suggested, asserting agreement with Bush on the war itself.

The July 27, 2004, Tribune article quoted Obama as saying: "There's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage" [emphasis added]. The article went on to note that Obama "opposed the Iraq invasion before the war. But he now believes U.S. forces must remain to stabilize the war-ravaged nation -- a policy not dissimilar to the current approach of the Bush administration."......

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