No Timetable on the Horizon for Bush and McCain

President George Bush and his would-be successor John McCain have been put in a difficult squeeze of late.

The man they characterize as naive and inexperienced is visiting our troops in Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Iraq and being greeted with smiles, and cheers, and requests for autographs. And that beautiful three-point shot from outside the circle -- wildly applauded by a gym full of American soldiers -- has not been his only score.

He is listening to, and talking with, world leaders in his usual calm, mature, thoughtful, and anything-but-extreme manner. He looks right at home with high level diplomacy. He looks like the dynamic, patriotic, visionary President that he will be, provided we have the wisdom to elect him in November. He just does not fit the caricature the Republicans have so relentlessly tried to sketch for the electorate.

I am not sure Obama had even landed in Kuwait before a magazine reported Iraqi President al Maliki's endorsement of the redeployment schedule from Iraq that Obama has proposed. Of course, our Republican administration quickly persuaded al Maliki to claim he had been misunderstood or misquoted... but he did not specifically retract the words and the German magazine had VERY complete transcripts of the interview. And the translation was by al Maliki's OWN translator. And the recordings have been reviewed by third parties who find his views clear. And now his government says they have a "vision" of US redeployment by mid-2010.

From the New York Times:

The following is a direct translation from the Arabic of Mr. Maliki’s comments by The Times: “Obama’s remarks that — if he takes office — in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq.”

Bush and McCain, of course, cannot ignore the Iraqi government's clear wish for us to leave their country, so they now agree with Maliki that we can set a "time horizon" for withdrawal! I suppose Ol' 100-year-McCain can argue that horizons go ever, ever on.

And they now meet with the Iranians to boot!

Barack Obama's foreign policy positions are being adopted by the Republicans!

But he is still too naive and inexperienced to trust as President?

Sorry guys, I don't think the usual cartoons -- wind-surfing, swiftboating, Willie Horton, Rovian funny-stuff -- are gonna fool America this time.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time but ...