Dukakis and the tank. Bush and the Mission Accomplished banner. Kerry in the NASA "bunny suit." Jane Fonda and the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun. Larry Craig's lecture about posture. Alberto Gonzales anywhere near the Department of Justice. You can tell when a particular moment is going to haunt a public figure. You may not be able to predict exactly how the blow will fall, or when. But it's coming.
John McCain's "moron minute" was his 2007 shopping trip in the Shorja market. McCain wanted to demonstrate how safe Baghdad was, since the beginning of the Temporary Escalation--as long as you took along 100 personal shoppers, who just happened to be US soldiers.
Today, McCain can't visit the market. The Army of the Mahdi, which now controls that part of Baghdad, can't be trusted not to shoot any visiting US senators.
How easily McCain could have avoided this embarrassment. Obviously, in the type of war we're fighting in Iraq, battle lines are going to shift all over the place. Shorja market might be safe again in a few weeks, and then not safe a few weeks after that. However, these nuances are going to be moot in the coverage of McCain's bizarre of the bazaar. He has only himself to blame.
"Obviously, in the type of war we're fighting in Iraq, battle lines are going to shift all over the place. Shorja market might be safe again in a few weeks, and then not safe a few weeks after that. However, these nuances are going to be moot in the coverage of McCain's bizarre of the bazaar. He has only himself to blame."
Forget nuance - the whole point of the surge was to secure large areas, and to keep them secure - no more 'whack a mole'.
Posted by: Barry | 03/19/2008 at 06:39