McCain: Odd Man Out

27 July 2008 |permalink | email article

“Timetable” on an Iraq exit was once a dirty word for Republicans, notably John McCain.

The presumptive GOP nominee blasted Mitt Romney in January for encouraging President Bush in April 2007 to develop a series of “milestones or timetables” for a troop withdrawal.

Blasting Obama for opposing last year’s troop buildup in Iraq and falsely claiming that the surge alone has turned defeat into apparent victory, the hawkish McCain now finds himself playing defense.

Having said early in the campaign his willingness to stay in Iraq for “100 years,” and with a more pragmatic Bush considering a “time horizon” for troop withdrawals much closer to the policies of Obama, McCain has a problem.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked McCain on Friday about Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s recent description of a 16-month timetable as “the right framework for withdrawal, with the possibly of slight changes,” a position favored by Obama.

McCain, who predicted in May that “most” U.S. military personnel would be welcomed home by the end of his first term in 2013, suddenly calls the timetable a “pretty good idea.”

His campaign still maintains there are fundamental differences between him and Obama on a speedy withdrawal – “conditions on the ground” is McCain’s murky exit mantra.

Weekend Crossfire

*** “With all the breathless coverage from abroad…I’m starting to feel a little left out.” – McCain, in a Saturday radio address slamming Obama’s overseas fact-finding tour, one he taunted him to take – while forgetting his own foreign trip in March.

*** “Americans are seeing a presidential Obama on the world stage and he fits comfortably.” – Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist in the primary campaign of Mitt Romney.

*** “If the grouching and grumbling continue, a campaign that once promised to be a referendum on Barack Obama’s experience threatens to become a referendum on John McCain’s temperament.” – Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson.

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