McCain's "free ride"

I think Eugene Robinson could take it quite a bit further and call his colleagues on the free raid they're giving Saint McCain on all issues, but it's a start.

Quite a "defining moment" in Iraq, wasn't it? At this rate, John McCain is going to be proved right: The war will last a century.

That is indeed what McCain meant, by the way, no matter how his apologists try to spin it. Those who claim that by "a hundred years" McCain was talking about a long-term peacetime deployment like the U.S. military presence in South Korea are being disingenuous or obtuse. In and around Seoul, citizens aren't shooting at American soldiers or trying to blow them up with roadside bombs -- and U.S. combat forces aren't taking sides in bloody internecine battles over power and wealth.

...

If Democrats are going to take several more months to settle on a presidential nominee, they had better find some way to stop giving John McCain a free ride on Iraq. He should have to explain why he wants to keep us on George Bush's long, winding path to nowhere.

The problem is, it's not the Dems who are giving McCain a free ride. It's the press corps. Case in point: what's McCain's reaction to the humiliating defeat of Maliki and Iraqi security forces (and American air cover) this weekend?

Crickets chirping.

But he has a point. Obama should pretty much ignore Clinton at this point and direct all his fire at McCain's position on Iraq and his economic advisers. Better yet, he should continue to mock McCain. Clinton should stop sniping at Obama's inelectibility and start talking about why she's different from McCain on these issues.

UPDATE: From reader "Anonymous:"

Iraqi PM: Basra operation was 'success'"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23898460/

Patience, patience. A "success" like this one requires a bit more time for the "spin meisters" to confabulate.

I feel certain that by the end of the week, it will have proved to be the "mother of all victories."

UPDATE II: According to Somerby, I've been played a rube. The thing is, though, I got Robinson's short hand. Iraq is not Japan. It didn't surrender unconditionally and agree to an occupation. Nor is it South Korea, relying on the U.S. to protect it from a rapacious (and crazy) neighbor (no, Iran is not like North Korea, even if they roost on the same "axis"). That's what Robinson's saying here; he's refusing to take McCain's statement at face value.