Campaign Jousting Returns to Iraq War
For some reason, that I am honestly unable to fathom, John McCain's team appear to think that his stance towards Iraq will prove to be some kind of vote winner and they are pushing to move his Iraq agenda centre stage in his fight with Barack Obama for the White House.
"The next commander in chief is going to have to make decisions that will either lead to peace and security in Iraq or chaos and conflict," said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, sounding a theme that Republicans have pushed all week.I love the notion that the next Commander in Chief will make decisions between "peace and security" and "chaos and conflict", as if Iraq is presently in some kind of neutral state. Chaos and conflict have already been achieved by the present Commander in Chief, so this argument is a totally false one.
The voters need to know how the candidates will make that decision. And the fact that there are 2-year-old Iraqi children who weren't born the last time Obama was in their country raises questions about what he is making his decisions on."No doubt Conant thinks that McCain's humiliating visit to an Iraqi market gives McCain some kind of special insight into Iraq and where we go from here.
The Obama camp have been quick to point out how ludicrous this argument is.
Obama aides said yesterday that the senator from Illinois is now considering a trip to Iraq as part of a long-deferred foreign tour. But they made it clear that he intends to assess how best to withdraw U.S. forces, not to reconsider whether they should be withdrawn. And they responded that none of McCain's trips to Iraq has been illuminating enough to dislodge his commitment to Bush's war policies.
"For all the travel that he's done, what we're looking at is John McCain wanting to double down on George Bush's foreign policy, to leave our troops there for 100 years instead of putting pressure on the Iraqis to come to some sort of political reconciliation," said Obama communications director Robert Gibbs.
I really, really, hope that the McCain campaign team focuses on Iraq as much as this latest spat suggests they might. If they think the Iraq war is a vote winner then they are looking at a wipe out come November.
Although the irony is that talking about the war prevents the Democrats from concentrating on Domestic issues, which is a subject which McCain might be keen to avoid.
Senior Democrats are urging Obama not to take the Republican bait on this issue.
"Frankly, his policy is about bringing our troops home sooner and safer, and that is a message resonating with the American people," Tauscher said. "I wouldn't do anything to validate Senator McCain's attempt to change the subject and create this red-herring debate."The Republicans are attempting to make a big deal out of the fact that Obama hasn't been in Iraq for two years. Perhaps if Obama walks through a market as McCain did - surrounded by over 100 soldiers and with attack helicopters swirling overhead - the American public will realise that Baghdad is safe after all and that Obama is talking nonsense?
I wonder....
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