It's fair to say that Keyes has been a strong supporter of Bush's handling of the war, even more than even some conservatives. I guess some people around here didn't know that.
By the way, what's Obama's view of the war? Does anyone know?
I would have voted not to authorize the president to go to war given the facts as I saw them at that time.Source: Meet The Press, NBC News Jul 25, 2004
http://ontheissues.org/International/Barack_Obama_War_+_Peace.htm
You make it sound as if Keyes is not a conservative.
I think it's statements like this from Keyes that make some people question his support of the administration:
KEYES: Well, I think one part of the problem — and we've come, unfortunately, to the end of the time we have for our discussion — but I think that one part of the problem, precisely, has to do with a failure to think through in a strategic sense the implications of our stated policy goals and desires. What I used to call when I was involved in all of this stuff, policies of wishful thinking that in point of fact are not a substitute for policies that are based on a careful assessment of the realities of the situation and the kind of tough decisions we have to take in order to take advantage of those realities to produce the result we want to see.That kind of coherence hasn't been there. And in part, I have to say, I know there are institutional stresses and strains and all this within every administration. But it is a president's job in the end to impress coherence on those kinds of stresses and strains. And it's going to have to be done if we're going to see a resolution of the confusion that I think is now being encouraged in U.S. policy.
There are more transcripts from the Making Sense show here.
Obama has called the war a polical hack job distracting from the war on poverty. That's basically what he said in '02. He has backed off that, but he probably still believes it.