It is definitely aimed at Hillary Clinton supporters and independents more than the Republican base. Some of the delivery is a bit off — he needs to lose the awkward cat that ate the canary grin — but his handling of the Iraq war is fairly deft. He doesn’t alter his position, and in fact takes partial credit for the surge as “the strategy that is now succeeding,” but emphasizes his disagreement with the Bush administration’s “mismanagement” of the war. This reputation helped him to do better with antiwar Republicans and independents in some primaries than even Ron Paul. It’s an effective way to position himself on an issue that has been giving Republicans trouble.
