This is what McCain said in 2004:
QUESTION: Let me give you a hypothetical, senator. What would or should we do if, in the post-June 30th period, a so-called sovereign Iraqi government asks us to leave, even if we are unhappy about the security situation there? I understand it’s a hypothetical, but it’s at least possible.
McCAIN: Well, if that scenario evolves, then I think it’s obvious that we would have to leave because— if it was an elected government of Iraq— and we’ve been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government, then I think we would have other challenges, but I don’t see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people.
Four years later, the scenario described has, in fact, taken place. Here’s what the Iraqi Prime Minister has been saying:
U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.
And here’s how the McCain campaign responded:
His domestic politics require him to be for us getting out… The military says ‘conditions based’ and Maliki said ‘conditions based’ yesterday in the joint statement with Bush. Regardless, voters care about [the] military, not about Iraqi leaders.
McCain seems to be alone on his little island all of a sudden. First Bush calls for a “time horizon”, and now the Iraqi Prime Minister comes very close to outright endorsing Obama’s position. Almost makes you want to feel sorry for the old guy.
I have to say, I would really like to shake the hand of the guy(s) who managed to come up with the “straight-talker” image. It must have taken geniuses to get people to ignore all these flip-flops. Evil geniuses, but geniuses none the less.
