I agree about the term "hedging." I don't think psericks is using it in the conventional sense (i.e., equivocation). Indeed, the diarist appears to mean the opposite (clear, direct). Clarification would help.

That's a good point, it's the wrong word.  My point was merely that he's starting to restrict his statement and add lots of qualifiers.  And that these qualifiers are going to open up a path for mainstream Democratic candidates to dramatically scale back the numbers of residual troops that have been talked about previously.

I guess I was also trying to fend off a couple of the polemics yesterday directed at Obama by some of the folks at Open Left by... trying to meet them halfway, I guess.

I've actually never really thought about the word "hedge" before.  What I was getting at was the sense of newly restricting a statement in such a way as to allow for a different outcome --- such as 'to hedge your bets.'  I didn't really mean the intention to confuse or mislead part that you're right about.