[Zhang Fei]

[This is a sudden and shockingly bold (and risky) shift in strategy.]

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For a Democrat, not all that risky, because if the Kurds get slaughtered, or Afghanistan falls, the media will paint it as inevitable. For Trump or any generic Republican, the media will depict it as the result of incompetence and a general unfitness for office. So the President will need to have a contingency plan just to salvage the optics as 2020 rolls around.

[BeauBo]

“the President will need to have a contingency plan just to salvage the optics as 2020 rolls around.”

If the substance is covered, the optics should take of itself.

If this is really a capricious and ill-conceived reaction by the President (which I doubt), then there will be a real optics problem.

The results will be the determinant.

[GOPJ]

The media hates Trump AND us - so we should just do what we think is right. We have nothing to lose. Whatever the choice - whatever the outcome - they’ll hate us for it anyhow.