While Barack Obama was in the Middle East this week, John McCain accused his opponent of preferring an election victory to a victory on the battlefield, however that might be defined:
John McCain returned to his second home of New Hampshire today, holding his trademark campaign event, a town hall. The crowd was very enthusiastic breaking into a standing ovation when he walked on stage. He quickly went after his rival making a pointed attack on Barack Obama’s stance against the troop surge in Iraq compared to his own initial support, “This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.”
He continued attacking his rival on Iraq and the troop surge, even bashing Obama’s initial plan to have all troops withdrawn by now, even though the presumptive Democratic nominee has switched to a 16-month withdrawal policy, “You might recall that Senator Obama, my opponent said the surge would not succeed. That he wanted us out. If he had his way we would have been out last March. We would have never done the surge. We would never have succeeded and we would have had defeat and my friends that would have been catastrophe for he United States of America,” McCain then went after Obama’s comments yesterday that he would still be against the troop surge, “He was wrong then. He was wrong now and he still fails to acknowledge–he still fails to acknowledge that the surge succeeded.”
Well, perhaps McCain should have checked the polls before going down this particular path:
Despite growing confidence that the U.S. and its allies are winning the war on terror, most Americans (52%) still believe it’s more important for the next president to bring the troops home from Iraq than win the war there.
A new Rasmussen Reports national survey finds that only 38% think winning is more important, while 10% are not sure.
Both numbers have shifted only slightly from a month ago, Both numbers have shifted only slightly from a month ago and two months ago. as have opinions on how the two major presidential candidates will handle the war in Iraq.
Another survey this week found that 63% of Americans want the troops brought home from Iraq within a year. That’s up from 58% three weeks ago and up from 61% from a month ago. There has been little change in attitudes towards a troop withdrawal since tracking of this question began last August.
So, while this may be good red meat for the partisan crowd, McCain’s position obviously isn’t playing well among the voters. But then, that’s not surprising.
Update: James Joyner makes a similar point in commenting on McCain’s statements about Obama and Iraq:
The problem, though, is that, had we listened to Obama, we wouldn’t be in Iraq to begin with. Given public opinion, it’s going to be a tough sell that McCain’s superior judgment on the Surge trumps that.
A tough sell indeed, given that it would basically require McCain to convince voters that there opposition to the war is wrong and that they should have agreed with him all along.
Something tells me this isn’t going to help McCain much at all.
