McCain to Obama: Let’s visit Iraq together
Republican John McCain on Monday sharply criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for not having been to Iraq since 2006, and said they should visit the war zone together.
“Look at what happened in the last two years since Senator Obama visited and declared the war lost,” the GOP nominee-in-waiting told The Associated Press in an interview, noting that the Illinois senator’s last trip to Iraq came before the military buildup that is credited with curbing violence.
“He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time,” the Arizona senator added. “If there was any other issue before the American people, and you hadn’t had anything to do with it in a couple of years, I think the American people would judge that very harshly.”
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Over the weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of McCain’s top surrogates, laid the groundwork for McCain’s criticism in a television interview in which he noted Obama’s absence from Iraq and floated the idea that Obama and McCain should go together to be briefed by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Asked whether he’d be willing to take such a trip, McCain told the AP: “Sure. It would be fine.”
“I go back every few months because things are changing in Iraq,” he said. McCain questioned whether Obama has ever been briefed by Petraeus. “I would also seize that opportunity to educate Senator Obama along the way.”
Obama spokesman Bill Burton declined to respond directly to McCain.
“Senator Obama thinks Memorial Day is a day to honor our nation’s veterans, not a day for political posturing,” Burton said.
LOL. Really? I wonder how Burton explains this, then.
And now that Memorial Day is over, Obama’s response would be … ?
The Captain lays out the delicious scenarios no matter Obama’s answer:
The challenge allows McCain to set a bigger trap for Obama than just a holiday headline. If Obama refuses, McCain can openly question how Obama came to his conclusions about Iraq when he won’t listen to the people running the operation now. It also calls into question Obama’s testicular fortitude; if McCain goes there regularly, why won’t the younger and more energetic Obama? If Obama does go, McCain will publicize the briefing and call on Obama to reconsider his position in light of the new data that Obama received.
The optics of this are priceless. If Obama goes, he risks his standing with the hard-Left haters of the military and exposes himself to the optimistic findings in the briefing. If he doesn’t go, McCain can openly wonder why Obama wants to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and not David Petraeus. The commercials practically write themselves.
I can’t wait.