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Careful What You Wish For
The reviews are in:
Obama’s trip to Iraq
came off without a hitch. John McCain, meanwhile, has managed to attract relentlessly
negative
coverage.
His only break was Drudge touting
his rejected New York Times op-ed,
which wasn’t exactly flattering either. And it’s not just quality of
coverage; it’s quantity, too. Just one
reporter showed up as McCain’s plane landed in Manchester last night.
But it’s hard to complain when Obama’s trip was your
idea in the first place. Back in May, John McCain chided Obama for only
having traveled to Iraq
once. “He could meet Gen. Petraeus and he could meet Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker,
and he could see — he could see the fact that Sadr City
is quiet,” McCain said. “He could see that the Maliki government has taken
control of Basra.
He could see that the Iraqi military is leading the fight in these places with
the support of American troops.” McCain also approved
of a joint trip to Iraq
with Obama.
The RNC piled on, too. “Obama has done shockingly little to
educate himself firsthand about the war in Iraq,” said RNC Chairman Mike
Duncan at the time. “Obama’s failure to visit Iraq, listen and learn firsthand
and witness the surge’s progress demonstrates weak leadership that disqualifies
him from being commander in chief.”
That’s not to say Obama wouldn’t
have taken the trip without pressure from McCain. But the Arizona
senator’s challenge, coming from someone who has visited Iraq eight
times since 2003, surely played a role.
So if the McCain camp is “frustrated”
by the attention being lavished on Obama, you can see why.
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