Bringing Home Troops; President's Report: What Happens Next in Iraq?
COLLINS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING, everybody. Reaction from voters this morning to the president's plan for troops in Iraq. The best political team in television has set up many bureaus in the key early election states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Last night, we watched the speech with people in Des Moines and asked if they were satisfied with the president's plan.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's baby steps. With what we have in office now, any little step helps, because right now they've been very hesitant to do anything at all.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to stay there until we help rebuild their communities and make sure that the small communities are safe. I would say stay until the job is done.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take 30,000 troops out is a start for the people. I want the troops to come home now, but you ask the troops, to a man or to a woman, they don't want to come home until their job is complete.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in trouble. We don't know how to get out. How do we get out?</s>COLLINS: Lots of different opinions, as you see there. Reaction from voters in Iowa last night to the president's speech -- John.</s>ROBERTS: And how about some analysis from a member of the best political team on television? CNN Chief National Correspondent John King with me here in Washington. He's in our bureau. We're across the street from the White House here this morning. John, you observed last night after the speech that this has really shifted the debate from whether troops will come out to how many and when, but what was the president not saying last night?</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what was most striking, John, to people who have watched the president throughout the Iraq war was how he laid out his terms for bringing the troops home, because as you noted earlier in the program, the president will present a report to Congress today that shows unsatisfactory or failing grades or OK or average grades on all of those benchmarks laid out. And yet, the president, who has consistently said he would only bring the troops out when Iraq was ready, when the Iraqis were ready to stand up, when the security benchmarks and the political benchmarks were met, is now saying he will bring troops home absent meeting those goals. Many there see a president moving to the center. Maybe because he has to. Maybe because they don't have the troops to sustain the surge. But he still changes the political dynamic, and many now see a political opening to push him to do more, and many actually believe behind the scenes his own generals are telling him that next spring and summer they want to bring home more troops, too.</s>ROBERTS: You know, at the same time the president was talking about bringing troops out, he talked about this enduring presence in Iraq. Some senior administration official suggested that the Korean model could be something to be looked at for Iraq, which may mean an enduring presence of decades. How is that likely to go over with the American public, John, which in increasing numbers wants to see troops brought out of Iraq?</s>KING: A very difficult political sell because it has not been explained to the public since the beginning of this war. But John, even if you talk to senior foreign policy advisers, to a Barack Obama or a Hillary Clinton, people who say get all of the troops out as soon as you can, many of them will concede privately that they can see 30,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops staying in Iraq for five years or more. Some say even 10 years or more. So, in the foreign policy community, if you get away from the partisan debate, there are many who say there will have to be a sustained relationship. The president called it an enduring relationship that would be three to five years, perhaps even longer, after most combat troops come out. You don't hear much of that in the political debate right now though because it is such a partisan, polarized debate between the Democrats saying bring them home now and the president saying we'll do this on my terms.</s>ROBERTS: And let's look at the impact, too, on the '08 election. We had reaction last night from a couple of prominent Republicans. Let's take a listen to what they said.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we can achieve some more success within months.</s>RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is just a battle in a much wider war. The Democratic candidates rarely used the word "Islamic terrorism," if at all, but that's what we're involved with here.</s>ROBERTS: So John, these are candidates who were sort of hoping against hope that they would be clear of the Iraq war by the time that they tried to run for president. They were told last night, you may well inherit it. What do they do with that?</s>KING: Well, privately, they're hoping that the president does continue to bring troops home and it is less and less of an issue by next November. But John, it is critical. The thing to watch for is, do any of those top-tier Republican candidates break from the president and join the moderates? I heard Dana Bash talking about Lamar Alexander earlier in the program, John Warner we know in the Senate. Do any of the presidential candidates join those in saying the president didn't go far enough? So far, the top-tier Republicans are not doing that. That helps the president.</s>ROBERTS: And quickly, John, on the Democratic side, did last night's speech strengthen their arguments, or might General Petraeus have a March surprise up his sleeve when it comes to further troop drawdowns?</s>KING: The most difficult part for the Democrats who are trying to compromise with the Republicans, perhaps get from 130,000 to 100,000 by the end of 2008 in terms of troop levels in Iraq. The most difficult dynamic for them is their presidential candidates want more. They want all of the combat troops out by 2008. It makes it harder for the legislators to compromise when the presidential candidates or the face of the Democratic Party right now say it's not good enough.</s>ROBERTS: Chief National Correspondent John King with us this morning, part of the best political team on television. John, thanks.</s>KING: Thank you.</s>ROBERTS: Heidi.</s>COLLINS: All right. Want to get to this now. Half of Americans lose $2,000 in cash a year. They just lose track of how they spend it, believe it or not. Ali Velshi is going to be telling us more about that. And, well, hey can't talk, so two mascots decided to duke it out. It's a beat-down, blow by below, when a duck attacked a cougar. Don't miss it coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.