Democrats win votes running against unpopular wars, but their opposition to those wars dies down once there is a Democratic commander-in-chief. Case in point is Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Asked about a fixed date for withdrawal from Afghanistan, which she has previously supported, Boxer said, “Well the president has laid out in his plan, the president is the commander in chief. And of course I would decide when the president suggests what our future should be.”
Boxer did not show that kind of deference when George W. Bush was commander-in-chief. Boxer voted three times to impose a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq that was opposed by the Bush administration. Boxer was even slow to be deferential to Obama, opposing his Afghanistan troops surge. Maybe Democrats won’t be antiwar this election year.
