It sure beats debating the distinction between "Perot helped out Clinton in only Montana and Colorado" and "Clinton would have lost Colorado and Montana without Perot."
Another argument that I thought was fairly persuasive from Obama is that McCain was arguing previously that we couldn't leave Iraq since violence was escalating but now that violence is down, we cannot leave anyway. Those positions seem somewhat contradictory. The McCain counterargument is that we would be sacrificing the gains that we have made if we left but then again, the counter to McCain's counter could be that we could lose Afghanistan to the Taliban or Al Qaeda, which is far more dangerous to American interests, if we don't redeploy some of our troops in Iraq to Afghanistan.
Sadly I am forming the opinion that McCain is intent on reclaiming the 'honour' that he feels we surrendered in the Viet-Nam war. Given his biography this is not such a wild idea, and if his current rhetoric is seen through the lens of this experience it seems to have a certain resonance. If this is the case than God help us all.
One of the worst weaknesses of an old 'war horse' is this unwillingness to relinquish past slights, in this case it seems particularly alarming.
"Reclaiming honor."
'The horror...'
