The Iraq War will become a Republican plus?

[ZombieHorde]

If it is McCain vs. Obama in the general election, look for something to happen that was unthinkable only a short time ago. The Iraq War will become a Republican plus.

The reason is that McCain’s position on the war, as on so many other issues, looks in (at least) two directions.

On the one hand, he voted to authorize the invasion. On the other, he consistently disagreed with the administration’s prosecution of the war in general and with the judgment of defense Secretary Rumsfeld in particular. And on the third hand, he advocated for a course of action that was at last implemented in the so-called “surge,” and with some success.

So, at any moment, he would be able to present himself as a strong patriot, and at another moment as a critic of the hard-line hawks, and at still another as a hard-line hawk with more experience and military knowledge than the others. And, depending on which position he was occupying, he could deny that he was an uncritical supporter of the war or that he was inattentive to the needs of the troops, or that he had nothing positive to offer.

Meanwhile, as McCain was nimbly moving around, Obama would be standing still, stuck in the one-note posture he has assumed from the beginning of the campaign. In the democratic primaries and caucuses, Obama’s strong suit – the club he used to beat up Hillary Clinton – has been the absolute consistency of his position on the war: he would have voted against it had he been in the senate at the time; he has spoken out against it repeatedly since becoming a senator; and he has promised to end it and bring the troops home within a short time.

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Read the rest (it's short) -
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/why-mccain-would-vote-for-obama/?ref=opinion

[stellanoir]

1. No way

Historically, once the general populous rejects the notion of an armed conflict they rarely turn back no matter how it is spun.

[Exilednight]

2. The key words is "very rarely", but it IS slowly happening. Latest polling suggests that public ...

at large is beginning to shift their opinion about Iraq. America suffers from short term memory loss.

If I were McCain, I know how I would attack her, and I would put Iraq at the top of the list. Hillary can be hammered both ways.

If she claims that her vote was not an intent to go to war, and I were McCain, I would point to the title of the bill and say "It was called the Iraq War Resolution, what did you think it meant?". Her vote kills her in the general election.