Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

November 11, 2009

Obama Meets Again on Afghanistan

President Obama meets this afternoon with his national security team for the eighth time to discuss what to do in Afghanistan.

The New York Times reports Obama "is to consider four final options in a meeting with his national security team on Wednesday... The options outline different troop levels, other officials said, but they also assume different goals -- including how much of Afghanistan the troops would seek to control -- and different time frames and expectations for the training of Afghan security forces.

An announcement on the decision is now not expect until Thanksgiving week at the earliest.

First Read concludes Obama "doesn't like his options; it's why he keeps asking for more plans from his military advisers."

Meanwhile, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research survey, 49% of Americans think President Obama is taking too long to decide whether to increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan while 50% do not.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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