By Patrick Appel
Obama admitted in an interview that the surge didn't go as he expected, but that he wasn't necessarily wrong, since the effects of pulling out earlier are unknowable. He is glomming on to McCain's more popular arguments, while McCain can't or won't adopt Obama's. Dave Weigel writes:
A debate over how right McCain was/how wrong Obama was over [the surge] is not going to subsume a debate over when to leave Iraq. I don't see any of this redounding to the benefit of John McCain. McCain's goading Obama to make this trip stands tall and proud as one of the dumbest blunders of the campaign. He couldn't have helped the Democrat more if he'd challenged him to a slam dunk contest.