Iraq: Red Said, Blue Said

In contrast, McCain has said this: To deny the difficulties and uncertainties ahead is an egregious disservice to the public. But as General Petraeus implements his plan to correct the flawed strategy we followed in the past, and attempts to spare the United States and the world the catastrophe of an American defeat, it is an equal disservice to dismiss early signs of progress … Will this nation’s elected leaders make the politically hard but strategically vital decision to give General Petraeus our full support and do what is necessary to succeed in Iraq? Or will we decide to take advantage of the public’s frustration, accept defeat, and hope that whatever the cost to our security, the politics of defeat will work out better for us than our opponents? For my part, I would rather lose a campaign than a war.

This is, in a word, leadership: telling people what they may not like to hear, but what is true. John McCain has made a career out of straight talk, and voters trust him for it. In deciding whom to trust on an issue as delicate and significant as Iraq, they won’t be mulling timetables or withdrawal schedules, and they won’t be swayed by political grandstanding. They will place our fate in the hands of John McCain—partly because he is the most capable, but mostly because he is the only candidate willing to take on hard questions and provide voters with more than empty promises.

The Blue Perspective: Erin Egan
Sometimes I call one of my children by the wrong name. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens. I’ll be tired, frustrated, and eager to do something really reasonable—like remove a day-old wad of oatmeal from one of their ears or put them to bed having sung only twenty choruses of “Old MacDonald” including the ever-popular “… and on that farm he had a walrus.” To make matters worse, my boys are identical twins, so it’s all the easier to slip up.
 
So I have to admit I felt a twinge of sympathy for John McCain when he got confused and said Sunni when he should have said Shiite. There he was in the Middle East—hot from the sun, jet-lagged, and tired from a year of campaigning—and he kept saying that Shiite Iran was training Sunni Al Qaeda in Iraq. Of course, it happened again this week in the air-conditioned comfort of the Senate while questioning General Petraeus, but I’m sure he was having a bad day then too. I mean, at least I had the good sense to give the boys names that begin with different letters.