From a July 19 interview:
Does this significantly help Obama? Does it hurt McCain? Will Bush get al-Maliki back in line before he heads for Crawford?"Whoever is thinking about the shorter term [for withdrawal] is closer to reality. Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops would cause problems.... As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned... Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic.... Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."
I say no way Bush EVAR gives in to the idea of a timeline as long as he's in office. He'd rather let someone else deal with the mess, but how do the R's spin this?