write about this.  "Day late and a dollar short."  Good job, Lowell.

In an article by Bumiller in yesterday's New York Times, McCain was described as being his own person, as the pragmatists and neocons advising him on foreign policy jockeyed for position.  And, clearly, as McCain strives to portray himself as the candidate with superior experience and judgment, he'll never be able to do what Bush did in 2000 by surrounding himself with "wise" old men like Cheney.  Unfortunately, McCain is proving he may be old; he may be a man; but, wise?  Not so much.

On the surge, it is not only doubtful that McCain was right, but also McCain's own understanding of what the surge even was is in question.   Matt Yglesias made a good point that even if McCain could prove he was right on the surge, that only means he would have been a good Commander-in-Chief in the past, when the surge was being debated.

Moreover, it's a questionable tactic to point to one good judgment when one has committed many more bad judgments, including, on this topic, the decision to invade Iraq in the first place.  All McCain has left, apart from portraying Obama as unacceptable, leaving only McCain as an alternative, is to argue that the jury is still out on whether invading Iraq was a good idea, and the only way to keep that jury in the deliberation room is to keep our troops there until we "win," which, under any reasonable definition, is not going to happen any time soon.

Obama knows this; Maliki knows this; and, Bush now seems to finally be getting it.  In one respect, it's too bad the neocons aren't winning the day in McCain's camp, because at least McCain could be consistent about willing to keep our troops in Iraq indefinitely.  I don't know which pragmatists convinced McCain, but today on This Week with George Stephanopolous he, too, decided to sign on to the concept of a "timetable."  Though, as the excerpt below demonstrates, his ego prevented him from admitting he was wrong.

MCCAIN: I didn't use the word timetable. That I did - if I did...

STEPHANOPOULOS: "Well, it's a pretty good timetable."

MCCAIN: Oh, well, look. Anything is a good timetable that is dictated by conditions on the ground. Anything is good.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.  I don't think being a national joke is going to win the election for McCain.  I wonder, though, if he could carry the day based on pity.  Does anyone think the country would prefer the sad old man?

always touches Americans, and that is perhaps what McCain is hoping for???

On the other hand, don't sell the old coot short. He keeps laying it on about the Surge working, and if he keeps up his attacks his framing of the issue will eventually become accepted as the conventional wisdom, ignoring all the contrary evidence or what an honest examination of history shows. Most of the public doesn't see what we see, or hear what we hear; they only hear McCain's repetitions "the Surge is working, the Surge is working." In other words, his flipflops and irrationalities are going to be polished up and repeated by the (so-called liberal) protective press, as will his complaints about the media ignoring him and his statements that they are  fawning over that ugly, uppity new guy with the funny name. Whining is okay when you are a put-upon, ignored underdog. Or so he hopes, perhaps?

An appropriate response from Hagel.  The shot at not visiting the troops in the hospital was weak.  Its hard to get on someone's case about not visiting the troops after they just went to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Camp Arifjan to visit the troops.