Sparring

Sometimes this Presidential campaign feels like an endless recitation of "x hit y, and now y hits back." But you go into an election with the media that you have, and the appearance of one side of a campaign on "offense" or "defense" is recognized by the chattering class as somehow the most important element there is. So it's significant that Obama is stepping up the attacks:

A day after Barack Obama and John McCain exchanged an embrace during a faith forum at a California megachurch, Obama called the U.S. economy a disaster thanks to "John McCain's president, George W. Bush," and chided his Republican rival's campaign team for trying to make him look unpatriotic and weak [...]

Sunday, after praising the Arizona senator as a "genuine American patriot," the Democratic presidential hopeful got back to business — methodically tearing into McCain's health care, tax and energy policies and criticizing his advisers.

"McCain says 'Here's my plan, I'm going to drill here, drill now which is something he only came up with two months ago when he started looking at polling," Obama said of McCain's energy policy [...]

The Illinois senator also criticized McCain's advisers as "the same old folks that brought you George W. Bush. The same team." He noted many had been lobbyists in Washington before McCain asked them to sever all lobbying ties.

Obama added, "They say this other guy is unpatriotic, or this guy likes French people. That's what they said about Kerry," referring to the 2004 Democratic nominee who lost narrowly to Bush. "They try to make it out like Democrats aren't tough enough, aren't macho enough. It's the same strategy."

I've kind of had it with the obligatory "he's an American patriot" preamble, but the majority of this is pretty good. Predictably, McCain countered by essentially calling Obama a traitor for wanting to "legislate defeat" in Iraq. I'm not interested into getting into the weeds of Iraq policy, the relative success or failure of the surge, or any of that, except to reiterate what the Obama campaign actually said in response - John McCain does not want Iraq to be free:

"All his bluster, distortions and negative attacks notwithstanding, it is hard to understand how Senator McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country. The difference in this race is that John McCain is intent on spending $10 billion a month on an open-ended war, while Barack Obama thinks we should bring this war to a responsible end and invest in our pressing needs here at home."

He does not support the prospect of free people making their own decisions in Iraq. That's short enough to make the news, and an excellent way to frame the debate. It's also true. I think Maliki is overreaching when he deems himself powerful enough to rule the country without compromise or integration of his rivals, but clearly he is in a strong enough position to join populist calls for a rejection of the occupying forces. And McCain has no respect for this overwhelming sentiment from the Iraqi population.