after comments made to rolling stone magazine regarding the president and his team. and the president says he has full confidence in the man he placed to replace him. >> we are in the midpoint of implementing the strategy that we came up with last year. we'll do a review at the end of this year. general petraeus understands that strategy because he helped shape it and my expectation is that he will be outstanding in implementing it and we will not miss a beat. >> joining me now is a man who knows general petraeus well. the director of the middle east studies program at the johns hopkins university school of advanced international studies, welcome. >> thank you very much for having me, paul. >> paul: here is the irony. the president obama, who opposed the surge in iraq, now names the architect of that surge. >> right. >> to help rescue the afghan surge. what do you make of that. >> this is a good surge as indeed-- and a good war. >> exactly, and afghanistan was a good war, the war of necessity as opposed to iraq the bad war, the bad war of choice. i think, look, the president's strategy in afghanistan is troubled and what the president has done and rightly, you can see what happened, is he has replaced very talented, but indiscrete commander with a very talented, but discrete commander and i think that general petraeus is one of the most discrete commanders you'll ever meet. i've known him for many years and seen his command mostly when he was a major general to iraq and this is a brilliant commander, but i think the war is not just about the commander in the battlefield, it's about the other commander, the commander-in-chief and that is what we're going to find out and will be testing in the days to come. >> paul: do you think that general petraeus when he was asked by president obama, will you do this. he's taking a nominal demotion, will you go back to the battlefield, do you think that general petraeus would say sure i'll do that, you've asked i'll accept, but i want certain things from you. would he be the kind of general who would do that. >> he's a man that-- >> he believes in the regular order of command. >> he is a patriot, but there is an issue here, that withdrawal, the plan withdrawal in summer of 2011 because last month, testifying before the armed services committee, general petraeus said that the president doesn't mean this as hard data, that he doesn't say let's head for the exits and turn the lights off, that depends, famous euphemism, conditions on the ground and conditions on the ground means is there native regime in afghanistan that's ready to defend its on country? is there a national army that can take the burden off the americans? and that's the question on the next phase. >> paul: do you think he would have asked the president, look, you have to listen to me. >> yes. >> paul: when i tell you what the conditions on the ground are? and does general petraeus have more leverage than general mcchrystal would have had. >> obviously and general petraeus is a much better politician than general mcchrystal. the generals are amazing, one gave an interview to "vanity fair" and stanley mcchrystal an interview to rolling stone. >> paul: more magazines and-- >> i don't think that general petraeus would ever do such a thing. would he have asked? there is an issue here, on november 29th, and we understand from the chronicle of the events that just before the president went to west point to get his statement, and his speech and outlining his strategy on afghanistan, there was a discussion about this deadline for 18 month period. >> right. >> we now have only a year to go so we want general petraeus to be a magician and remake the politics of afghanistan and remake afghan culture just on deadline and i think that is mission impossible in my view. >> you don't think that he can actually succeed? >> i think he's going to basically say what he said to the armed services committee last month, that these deadlines for withdrawal is not a hard deadline, that it depends on the conditions, depends on the ability of the afghan army and one thing we know from general petraeus's record is in iraq, and this is someone who really can work with the native, the government on this scene. he had to go and see what afghanistan is all about, as he learned the tricks of iraq. >> paul: one of the virtues of general mcchrystal he got along well with karzai, the president of afghanistan, most of the civilian leadership does not in the united states, the civilian leadership. general petraeus, does he have the personality who could win the confidence of karzai. >> general petraeus can work with anyone and that's the talent of the man, the unusual talent of the man. i don't think he was particularly fond of maliki, but i think there's something that stops the american adventure in afghanistan. i find you a quote from general petraeus dissertation of 25 years ago in princeton and the dissertation, the most studied by the way, the american military and the lessons of vietnam and this is what he said about vietnam. he says the war was a faithful reminder that when it comes to intervention, time and patience are not american virtues in abundant supply. he's going to meet this in this new assignment. s' going to come up against time and's going to come up with mrn patience and he's going to come up again joe biden and against the democrats in the house and against senator boxer and senator fine gold, he's going to come against the coalition of president obama that never really has supported this war to begin with. >> so you're saying that the president has asked him to save a war that the democratic party and the president himself are only half heartedly committed to? >> i've written a piece for the wall street journal and i haven't said it's public, my editor hasn't said so yet. but i've written something beginning with lyndon johnson and his relation to the war in vietnam. what he actually didn't know, he didn't like the war, he didn't want the war. he couldn't win the war and he he couldn't abandon the war and i have the sinking feeling, as someone who supported for the iraq war, i look at the afghan war with a jaundiced eye and maybe the commander-in-chief will not fight to victory and-- >> i'll hope that general petraeus can turn it around. when we come back, moving ahead in afghanistan as general we didn't see it coming. but women have made olay regenerist #1. though not surgical results, regenerist is the #1 serum, night cream, and moisturizer. not drastic. just fantastic. get younger-looking skin with regenerist. ♪ [ spray bottle ] what does she see in him? 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[running engine] [engine revs] [running engine] we did not say that starting july, 011, suddenly there would be no troops, from the united states or allied countries in afghanistan. we didn't say we'd be switching off lights and closing doors behind us. we said as we begin a transition phase in which the afghan government is taking on more p more responsibility. >> president obama a day after replacing his top general in afghanistan saying a significant number of u.s. troops could remain there well after his withdrawal time line begins next summer. joining the panel this week "wall street journal" columnem dan heting ger, rob pollic and editorial board member matt kamin skib. are we seeing the president make a commitment to the war effort beyond that july, 2011 deadline? >> we did best outcome of the unfortunate week for the obama war effort in afghan stachbl he introduced petraeus he sounded committed than he ever has since december. the question is, i mean, the unfortunate irony of what happened to mccrystal is that he was on board the strategy. and actually more apparent on the civilian side with vice president biden and obama's national security advisor and most of those left. >> it sounded like the president is moving somewhat over to the petraeus point of view. >> a agree. >> if they don't say that to the base yet. >> a agree. if he did, it happened within the last 24 hours. i want to go back to that petraeus testimony before the armed services committee and senator carl levin. what petraeus said when asked about the deadline is i get a quote unquote qualified yes to the deadline. okay? and that caused a sensation. qualified yes. the next day, he appeared before the appropriations committee and was pressed on that and said he was giving a firm yes to the deadline. he was on board. and if this is true, i think in some sense because this is at the heart, i think of mccrystal's disagreement. >> i agree. >> then, stanley mccrystal fell on his sword for the cause. you now have the president coming over to the military more realistic view you cannot possibly get out of there by next july. i think he gave himself up. >> you can't fire the vice president unless everybody knows at every stage while leaking to everybody. you've got an ambassador who doesn't agree witness. does some of the civilian advisors the president said we're not going change anymore. should he sack these people? to send a message? >> i think he sent a message which is again, all though he's not renounced the timetable by putting petraeus in, he's said conditions on the ground goring to dictate the further moves it's not going to be a july, 2011 causing hamid karzai to to go trying to make deals with the taliban. >> that is one of the reasons karzai has been dealing with pakistan saying look, we have to cut a deal with the taliban because they can see americans are high tailing out of here in 2011. we're going to have to deal with these guys one way or another. i might smart now so i'm not the victim and am not ousted. >> what do you think about the president's -- what does the president need to do to build domestic support sneer i don't think he's given a speech on afghanistan since the west point speech. >> no. he has bt ask he needs to build more domestic support. i think we have to speak to the troops in afghanistan. one of the other issues that i believe was at the heart of this is matter of rules of ingaugement. how hard can troops fight over there into these villages? issue for them is if they go in to make a mistake, are they going to be called to account? are there going to be investigations? there is two words hangs in the mind of the soldiers there. abu ghraib and barack obama and democrats when george bush was president use that had constantly against the war with iraq. i think the president has to make clear to the soldiers he has their support. >> i think one thing we have to be careful about is expecting general petraeus to go into afghanistan to do a surge of the same kinds of things he did in iraq in afghanistan that is a different place doesn't have the same political reconditions. in iraq you have a democratic process moving forward. >> what will be the big difference? >> big difference is the political conditions on the ground. no matter what military gain wez make we don't have the a civilian government yet emerging in afghanistan that can commit the loyalty of the people and effective afghan... >> does that mean we have to get rid of karzai? >> i don't know what it means. >> can we work with karzai? >> we have to. >> i think we do have to work with karzai. but the way to do is it not alienating him which i think is a mistake this administration made saying we're going to treat him differently than bush d not going to be as accommodating he's got his back up. now, it's been tougher dealing. we'll see if petraeus can come back to fix that relationship. with we come back, our supreme court round up. a look at some of the big decisions this term, and where the court's newest justice, sonia sotomayor came down and a look ahead to president obama's latest supreme court pick, alani kagan. host: does elmer fudd have trouble with the letter r? elmer: shhhh, be very quiet; i'm hunting wabbits. director (o/c): ok cut!!!! uh...it's i'm hunting "rabbits," elmer. let's try that again. elmer: shhhh, i'm hunting wabbits. director (o/c): cuuuuut! rabbits. elmer: wabbits director (o/c): rabbits. elmer: wabbits. director (o/c): rabbits with an "r." elmer: aw...this diwector's starting to wub me the wong way. vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. ♪ uh oh. sorry, son, but you still have 'em. 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[ female announcer ] charmin ultra strong. enjoy the go. also, try charmin freshmates for a cleaner clean. with confirmation hearings for supreme court nominee kagan set to begin on monday on capitol hill, members of the senate judiciary committee have a weekend to pour over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents released on kagan so far, including e mails from her four years in the clinton white house. opinion journal.com editor and collin leafy have been digging through the files and join us now. before we get to alanea kagan what have we learned about the court? >> the court hasn't change that had much with the change to suitor to sotomayor. and there is a change we'll have the -- one thing that is significant to me is that there is a departure of davis appointed by general schwartz assuming that kagan is a reliable, i don't think anyone is expecting unexpected from her, swreel a four-member block appointed by democratic presidents and four-member conservative block, plus justice kennedy. it will be the most partisan court since at least the new deal. >> because they're named partisan they're going behave partisan? >> no. but alignment of the court will fit alignment of the political parties. it's become more politics reached a court in a way it hasn't completely before. >> what have we learned about sonia sotomayor this year? >> she's performed as expected and she's voted with the liberal block on every major decision and in many cases actually been more liberal than some of the liberal justices. we had a situation last week, where the supreme court struck down three cases from the ninth circuit in each of those instances she was among the disenters where occasionally they crossed over and you know, swhaez still there on the left so. i think we can see that from her. >> the ninth circuit being the liberal ninth circuit and oft-yorn turned. >> yes. >> what do we know about alanea kagan? >> we don't know that much because she hasn't written that much. she was a highly politicized member of the clinton administration. i expect she'll be on the court. i expect hearings are going to be fairly boring. >> because that is what supreme court nominees do now. >> yes. yes. >> and they don't say anything. >> let's pursue this point we've raised here. this goes back to the hearing at that time there, was still a view that nominees in the supreme court should be great legal minds. constant -- constitutional theeorists. i think that has fallen to the side and you're goat geting nominees reflecting the practical politics of the president, or the party in power that, i think is, what you have seen in sotomayor and now in,agan. not a great constitutional theerist. >> what do we know about... >> yes. sorry. if i can just break in to expand a little bit on dan's point, just going say one of the thing that's is interesting is that we looked at sotomayor you might recall there was a lot of focus on wlrbt whether or not she'd relie on foreign law and whether or not she felt that was an appropriate basis for the supreme court to make any decisions. she said she won't do so, and she joined the decision that cited foreign law. so dan was saying these hearings play it close to the vest. they're often not subjective. >> what do we know about kagan's view about federal power over the states is in the challenge to obama care will be one of the biggest cases in decades that this court will hear do. we have expectation kagan might have a sense there are limits on congressional authority over this state? >> i would doubt it. we don't know that much about her views because l is no record as a judge. she'll be the first supreme court justice with no judicial experience since william rehnquist in 1972. we know in clinton administration she argued for a federal law allowing new york city workers to work for the city to report suspected illegal aliens though that was against city policy n that case she took the side of the federal power against a lok kalt and played against ideological types. >> very briefly, any surprises we can look for on, from a injuris prude yens, do you think? >> i don't think so. think she has expressed an expensive view of federal power and did so in memos written during clinton administration. >> we'll take one more he break. when we come back, hits and misses of the week. take one more break. when we coco [ powder cleaner ] mr. clean magic eraser bath scrubber? 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[ giggles ] tell her it's for the hi-speed internet. ♪ [ female announcer ] free hot breakfast. big comfyeds. free high-speed internet. quality hotels. i got an egg [pop] i got gum a kazoo a candy necklace i got one of these [pop] a stamp helium fabric softener ear plugs [pop] lipstick two pills a day is what it takes to stay alive if you're hiv positive. those pills cost about forty cents a day. >> time now for hits and misses of the week. colin, first to you. >> well, it's a hit to federal judge martin feldman, this week overturned the obama administration's six month moratorium on drilling in the gulf of mexico. critics so desperately tried to discredit the ruling by saying that the judge owns stocks in companies owned with drilling and this is something actually true of more than half of judges in the region, so i think the real scandal here was an obama administration policy that had really no tether to science or safety. >> paul: here, colin, pat. >> and in south africa, even if they don't make it all the way, team usa is a hit not for winning, but the way they did it. withstood some terrible calls, never gave up and played with a modesty and a class rarely seen in american sports. these are american values on displays. >> paul: if you can get toronto to watch. >> good luck. >> paul: mr. rory, who is roar rry, the democratic nominee for the governor of nevada. and his website describes him as rory, because the last name is reed, as senate majority reed, on the ballot and rory is running away from his family name because nevadaens aren't wild about harry. >> is he going to win, reid. >> no, rory definitely not and harry probably not. >> paul: remember if you have your own hit or miss, send it to us. this is the edition of the journal editorial report, thanks for wahing, i'm paul gigot,