Kristol, Liz Cheney praise Obama on Afghanistan

By Eric Zimmermann - 06/27/10 01:36 PM ET

President Obama received some unlikely praise Sunday from two of his fiercest critics.
Liz Cheney and the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol both said on Fox News Sunday that Obama did the right thing by replacing Gen. Stanley McChrystal with Gen. David Petraeus.
"The president did the right thing and he deserves praise for accepting General McChrystal's resignation, which was necessary, I think, appointing David Petraeus to take over command of the war in Afghanistan," Kristol said.
But Kristol went even farther, praising Obama for creating some wiggle room on the July 2011 date for the beginning of troop withdrawal.
"I think he's basically going to move as far as he can, without explicitly sort of contradicting himself, to take that burden off the back of General Petraeus as he attempts to win the war," Kristol said.
Like Kristol, Cheney gave Obama points for a swift decision on replacing his top general in Afghanistan, but also called on Obama to "completely and explicitly repudiate the July 2011 deadline."
"I think that Bill is right that the president did the right thing and that the president deserves credit," she said. "And I did think the president's speech announcing the change was a good speech."