Presumptuous? Who, Me?

Via Greg Sargent:

At a press conference just now, John McCain redoubled his efforts to thrust himself into a leadership role on the Russia-Georgia crisis front, announcing that two top campaign surrogates, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, are going on a visit to Georgia.

So if merely giving a speech in Germany is "presumptuous", how freakin' "presumptuous" is it for a candidate to send their own diplomatic team into a foreign conflict? Isn't that, you know, a job for the President, not a candidate?

Why no outrage on this? I think it's safe to say that if another candidate did this, conservatives would burst into flames from fury, and the talking heads would be beside themselves talking about how unprecedented it was for a candidate to inject themselves into an international crisis -- politics should stop at the water's edge, and all that. Instead, McCain is using a shooting war to buff his credentials? Seriously? And nobody in Washington sees a problem with that?

One bright side of this campaign: the nation is indeed finally getting to see what a supreme tool John McCain is. And to see what two tools can do together. And what a professional campaign tool can do when they've been paid to lobby by one of the countries in question. And what the nation's most celebrated toolbox can do, when they just can't stand the idea of there being conflict somewhere in the world that they haven't been able to personally help make worse.

Honestly. Take all the worst things about the Bush administration, double them, then add Joe Lieberman. A McCain administration would be the presidential equivalent of a slasher flick.