main combat role in the middle of next year, in the summer of 2013, and then they ll move into a sort of support role, training and partnering with the afghan troops. the idea is to test the basic core idea of this policy, which is that you can transition at the afghan leadership and then u.s. troops will leave in 2014. they did roll that out. and they re going to roll it out again in chicago. but that s the basic policy. the harsh rhetoric gaifd, good morning, harold ford the harsh posture of president karzai the last six months over the accidental mistaken killing of afghan citizens which president obama apologized for, there was grave concern that maybe karzai overreacted to that. in some ways, has the president and the white house called the bluff of president karzai who s asked us to accelerate this exit, and what impact does this have on his government and his ability to him being karzai, him being able to stabilize the country in the intermediate and
governor loses for the same reason mitt romney will, or it goes away as an issue in the 2012 campaign. joining us now, ezra klein. thanks for your time. good evening, rachel. it is easier, of course, to criticize policy than it is to compete on policy, to put forward and pass your own alternative ideas. does this move by the president put republican governors on the spot to do their own version of health reform if they are going to complain about the other one? they spent a couple years saying it is the most absurd, poorly written, long, complex piece of legislation one could possibly imagine. so obama as you put it sort of called the bluff. he said look, all right, if it s such a bad bill, you tell me how to do it better. you take the end goals we all agree on. people should be covered.
if you think you can do it better, don t just complain, show me, and either every governor loses to barack obama for the same reason mitt romney will, or it goes away as an issue in the 2012 campaign. joining us now, ezra klein. thanks for your time. good evening, rachel. it is easier, of course, to criticize policy than it is to compete on policy, to put forward and pass your own alternative ideas. does this move by the president put republican governors on the spot to do their own version of health reform if they are going to complain about the federal one? they spent a couple years saying it is the most absurd, poorly written, long, complex piece of legislation one could possibly imagine. so obama as you put it sort of called the bluff. he said look, all right, if it s such a bad bill, you tell me how
if you think you can do it better, don t just complain, show me, and either every governor loses for the same reason mitt romney will, or it goes away as an issue in the 2012 campaign. joining us now, ezra klein. thanks for your time. good evening, rachel. it is easier, of course, to criticize policy than it is to compete on policy, to put forward and pass your own alternative ideas. does this move by the president put republican governors on the spot to do their own version of health reform if they are going to complain about the other one? they spent a couple years saying it is the most absurd, poorly written, long, complex piece of legislation one could possibly imagine. so obama as you put it sort of called the bluff. he said look, all right, if it s such a bad bill, you tell me how to do it better.
he s just now he s a mccain wannabe. but only in terms of crankiness. final question, i want to get your thoughts on this, on the strategy here because it occurred to me today that if s.t.a.r.t. does pass and it is now looking like it s going to pass. you have two different models. basically the white house blinked for the republicans saying we re going to hold these other things hostage unless you deal with it. they said the same thing about s.t.a.r.t. and they went ahead anyway and called the bluff, and it looks like they re going to get s.t.a.r.t., and i wonder what that says about how much republicans are bluffing when they do this kind of thing. well, i think on the tax cut deal, the president s argument was that he was playing chicken with a bunch of people who were irresponsible. and who were actually willing at the time to let the tax cuts extensions not continue for middle class, to let unemployment insurance not go on, and that come the next