Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters has noted a key change in the Iraq troop withdrawal rhetoric by candidates in last night's Democratic presidential debate. After the testimony of General Petraeus about the troop surge, the goalposts are being moved by the 2008 Democratic hopefuls.

In fact, at last night's debate, the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination couldn't even commit to a withdrawal -- by 2013:

The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013.

"I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state.

"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Taking this a step further, I remembered reading recently that Senator Obama said he'd move for redeployment of troops beginning in 2007 with a March 2008 deadline and then changed it to end of 2008. And now it's hard to project four years from now? Priceless.