Washington Times: Obama tried to sway Iraqis against Bush deal

Well, Barack Obama chose to use his own presidential seal, since withdrawn, so it's no suprise that when he was in Iraq in June, Illinois' junior senator decided to act as commander in chief, as the Washington Times discovered:

At the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to keep the U.S. military in Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to convince Iraqi leaders in private conversations that the president shouldn't be allowed to enact the deal without congressional approval.

Mr. Obama's conversations with the Iraqi leaders, confirmed to The Washington Times by his campaign aides, began just two weeks after he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination in June and stirred controversy over the appropriateness of a White House candidate's contacts with foreign governments while the sitting president is conducting a war.

Some of the specifics of the conversations remain the subject of dispute. Iraqi leaders purported to The Times that Mr. Obama urged Baghdad to delay an agreement with Mr. Bush until next year when a new president will be in office - a charge the Democratic campaign denies.

Technorati tags: politics news Democrats Obama politics Barack Obama Iraq العراق