My first diary on DKos after many years of reading.
John McCain has very few cards to play this election cycle. He’s simply on the wrong side of nearly every issue. The non-substantive attack ads have started to roll out, with McCain personally declaring his pride – yes pride – in one that compares Senator Obama to Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears. McCain and his surrogates have been lobbing grenades at Obama, desperately trying to knock him off stride. Vigilance is critical.
We may already be reaching the end-game in terms of setting the stage for the election. Defining your opponent, and getting defined by the opposition, happen today, not two days before the election. See John Kerry response (or lack thereof) to SwiftBoat attacks in 2004. Perceptions among swing voters will form and harden before we know it. Two issues will weigh heavily this election: the economy and the so-called commander-in-chief test. But negative perceptions of a candidate on one issue tend to taint the perceptions of that candidate on all issues.
Last week, McCain accused Senator Obama of failing the commander-in-chief test because he did not support the surge.
John McCain: July 25, 2008
"Eighteen months ago, America faced a crisis as profound as any in our history. Iraq was in flames, torn apart by violence that was escaping our control. Al Qaeda was succeeding in what Osama bin Laden called the central front in their war against us. The mullahs in Iran waited for America's humiliation in Iraq, and the resulting increase in their influence. Thousands of Iraqis died violently every month. American casualties were mounting. We were on the brink of a disastrous defeat just a little more than five years after the attacks of September 11, and America faced a profound choice. Would we accept defeat and leave Iraq and our strategic position in the Middle East in ruins, risking a wider war in the near future? Or would we summon our resolve, deploy additional forces, and change our failed strategy? Senator Obama and I also faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe Senator Obama's failed."
[By the way, has anyone noticed how McCain defers to Osama bin Laden to decide where the central front on the "war on terror" is? That’s pretty pathetic.]
McCain and the Republicans will be beating this theme, or variations of it, to death until the election. The Obama camp needs to hit back HARD and NOW. This commander-in-chief BS cannot be allowed to stand unchecked, but the counter-attack must hone on McCain’s weakness.
The response to date, while accurate, has been far too nuanced. Obama, for instance, has explained that other factors (the Sunni Awakening and the central government’s crack-down on Sadr’s militia) may have yielded the same results in the same time period, even without the surge. A valid argument, but that response does little to address the commander-in-chief test argument, it’s defensive, and it does nothing the shove the argument back in McCain’s face.
To me the response is simple and points directly to McCain’s greatest weakness on the issue of war. There is no more important decision a commander-in-chief makes than the decision to go to war in the first place.
Senator McCain, when you were called upon to exercise judgment on that fateful issue, you failed. You voted for the Iraqi war; Senator Obama openly spoke out against it. You followed the herd; Senator Obama stood up to the bleating cry for war and the false rhetoric of looming mushroom clouds. You aligned yourself with those who disgustingly employed the tragedy of 9-11 to whip a majority of otherwise reluctant Americans to support the invasion of Iraq; Senator Obama used reason and judgment to speak out against going to war against a country that had nothing to do with 9-11, was already completely contained, and where U.N. inspectors were already actively conducting inspections to search for non-existent WMDs.
Senator McCain: You failed the commander-in-chief test; Senator Obama passed it.
More importantly, when McCain had an opportunity to show that he learned from his mistake he demonstrated a shocking lack of judgment:
From Meet the Press, Jan. 6, 2008:
MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, it's an important question -- President Bush has said, "Even if I knew he did not have biological, chemical, or a nuclear program, I still would go into Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein." Would you have?
SEN. McCAIN: Yes, but the point is, that if we had done it right, it's been well chronicled in many books, you and I wouldn't even be discussing that now-- the mishandling after the war.
The point is not whether if "we had done it right." The point is that it was done. And Senator McCain would have done it again even knowing everything we know today. Good judgment? No.
SO:
When someone trots out the argument:
"Knowing what he knows today, Obama would still oppose the surge despite its apparent success"
The response, at least to me, is simple:
"Knowing what he knows today, McCain would still invade Iraq:
- despite of the loss over 4000 American lives
- despite tens of thousands more physically wounded and suffering from post traumatic stress disorder
- despite the hundreds of thousands dead and injured Iraqis, despite over 4 Million displaced Iraqis
- despite the fact that the Iraqi war took much needed military resources from Afghanistan
- despite no Al Qaida presence in Iraq before the war
- despite the cost of the war approaching one Trillion dollars, and
- despite the fact that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction."
This isn’t even a close call. Despite the benefit of hindsight and knowing all of what we now know and cannot be disputed, John McCain would still have supported war against Iraq. McCain has learned nothing from his past errors.
That should be a constant and loud refrain by Democrats. It should start today. And it shouldn’t end until Election Day.
UPDATE: [first time doing this as well]
As MKSinSA notes:
He failed the test before it began . . .
His failure to read the NIE - to decide to send young men and women into harm's way (given his alleged care and great love for them) without knowing the situation on the ground was reckless and foolish. No serious high-level commander would do such a thing when it is available right next door.
http://www.dailykos.com/...