Obama lucked out that he didn't have to cast an actual vote on the Iraq War due to vicissitudes of his congressional career; based on how he actually governed and the allegiances he has demonstrated, we can reasonably guess he would have voted in favor. He also cemented our endless imperial interventionism in the broader Middle East including with an absolutely disastrous campaign in Libya. And, just like George W. Bush and his lackeys, paid zero price for it.

The post was specifically talking about media commentators.

I do agree that Obama’s position helped him in 2008 re: clinton. But politicians are judged on deeds as well as written opinion. But in the media sphere, most of the prominently wrong got promoted.

It is true that Obama was not yet in the senate for the original Iraq war vote, so we can only speculate what his vote would have been.

Support for the war among his peer moderate Democrats in the senate was near unanimous: Joe Lieberman, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry all voted in favor. It's not unfair to assume he would have as well. https://progressive.org/op-eds/clinton-s-iraq-war-vote-still...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2013/09/...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/17/joe-bi...

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/joe-lieberman-iraq-war

His withdrawal of forces from Iraq for which many give him credit was on the schedule of the Status of Forces Agreement negotiated by the Bush Administration before he took office. It would likely have happened the same under a McCain administration.

He bears 100% of the responsibility for the shit-show that happened in Libya.

The US policies that prolonged and worsened the Syrian civil war were birthed under his watch as well. The "we're fighting ISIS" while simultaneously arming anti-government Al-Qaeda-aligned groups was a recipe for disaster.

Obama "surged" to double US troop levels in Afghanistan shortly after taking office. Also from this era: The drone assassination program. Lots of extra killing, to no lasting effect.

https://www.wired.com/2012/09/surge-report-card/

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/oba...

Let's not pretend that Obama was in any way but rhetorically anti-war.