We are electing a president, not a seer. Sure the "surge" failed, just not in the way we expected.
When McSame jumped Obama on the subject of the "surge" he seemed to be suffering under the delusion that the military buildup in Iraq somehow won the war. It has been more than sixty years since we won a war without an asterisk, and Iraq isn't going to break that streak. Our victory in Iraq has made Iran the Big Dog in the Gulf and, thanks to their growing influence, soon the new theocratic overlords of the entire region.
The "surge" failed because it has made the situation in Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Syria more hostile to American interests and less likely to become the sort of societies that respect the human rights of their people. The Iranians have effective control South of Baghdad and elsewhere we pay the Sunni insurgents to be our friends. This doesn't match the description of victory in anyone's vocabulary except perhaps the McSame brain. The current situation is just delaying the day when the solution for the problem that is Iraq is resolved and we can bring our troops and resources home where they are needed.