There’s a practice among many conservatives of love-bombing liberals who take a few steps in their direction. On the whole, it’s a good practice. The idea is that positive feedback will encourage liberals to move further toward embracing policies that conservatives like. And sometimes that happens.

In President Obama’s case, he’s been treated approvingly (for the most part) by conservatives on his war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is because the policies have been better than most conservatives feared: no precipitous pullout in Iraq, a troop surge in Afghanistan, and the decision to install General David Petraeus as Afghan commander.