5/30/2008

In Brief: McCain to Obama: "C'mon, Smell the Surge, Barack":
The McCain campaign is trying to bait the Obama campaign into playing on Republican turf when it comes to the war in Iraq. McCain's bullshit playground taunt to get Obama to visit Iraq now that the "surge" is allegedly effective has morphed into an online petition at McCain's site and a clock on the RNC's site marking how long it's been since Obama walked the tightly controlled parts of the streets he would be allowed to walk. And the media is, of course, going along with it like lap dogs whose master just covered his crotch in Alpo, with anchors and correspondents wondering when Obama is going to head overseas to get his photo taken in a flak jacket and helmet for all to mock.

Instead, the Obama campaign needs to keep in mind: when John McCain talks about how super-great the war is going, he's not actually talking to the majority of the country. No, see, we're all done. According to the latest Pew Research Center poll, 56% of the nation wants a "quick withdrawal" from Iraq. And that goes along with the well-over 50% who don't think the war was worth it in the first place. For the nation, the war is over, except for the fact that the troops are still there. Obama can simply promise to do what the majority of the nation actually wants, and isn't that what politicians love to do?

So as McCain puffs his tiny little chest and says that the only way Obama can know the "truth" about what's happening in Iraq is to be led around on a tight leash inside the Green Zone by the military to see whatever they want him to see, the Democratic candidate can simply shake his head and say that just because there's gold in a pile of shit, it's still just a pile of shit. And nearly everyone will agree.