McCain knee-capped by Maliki

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WASHINGTON - This weekend's surprise endorsement by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Senator Barack Obama's call for American combat forces to leave Iraq by mid-2010 marks a serious setback to Republican Senator John McCain, who has tried hard to depict his Democratic rival as "naive" on foreign policy, especially with respect to Iraq.

That Maliki's endorsement in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine came on the very eve of Obama's visit to Baghdad has made things even worse for the McCain camp, which at first echoed the White House in insisting that the prime minister's remarks had been "misunderstood and mistranslated".

Even McCain's staunchest supporters admitted on Monday that Maliki's comments constituted what the right-wing National Review magazine called a "body-blow" to the Republican candidate, who has made Iraq - and what he claims is the unqualified success of the "surge" strategy in the past year there - the centerpiece of his efforts to claim the mantle of seasoned foreign policy veteran.

"Maybe McCain shouldn't have been so emphatic" about urging Obama to visit Iraq, rued the Review's White House correspondent, Byron York. "What if Obama went to Iraq, decided his position was the correct one, and then, in a major campaign coup, received what appeared to be the endorsement of the Iraqi prime minister? And - extra points - made himself look more statesmanlike in the process?

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JG23Ak03.html

[BridgeTheGap]

1. Unfortunately, the Iraqis won't be voting for U.S. President. Why do the polls indicate

that Americans still overwhelmingly see McBush as a better commander-in-chief?
My guess is that most of them don't realize that McBush is not just real ignoramus on economics but on foreign affairs too.

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3. All polls are horse-flop.

Generally, people who claim to know what "the American People" think are brim full of horse-flop.

I mean no personal attack on you, I am just am a poll heretic.

[BridgeTheGap]

4. I don't particularly care for polls either, BUT they're the primary

driver of most campaigns now. They're also the reason that most campaigns do little or no grassroots organizing. With polling, they don't feel like they need to do this. Abandoning the grassroots cost the Dems far more than it did the repubs.

[patrice]

2. Maliki "misunderstood and mistranslated" = "He said that before we made him an offer

he couldn't refu$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$e."