From a CNN interview:
John KING: Well, today, back home, one of those Democrats, Senator Clinton, who could be your opponent in the fall election, is giving a speech in which she is saying if she is elected president of the United States, she will start bringing home the troops within 60 days.
John MCCAIN: Well, all I can say is that she obviously does not understand nor appreciate the progress that has been made on the ground. She told General Petraeus last year when he testified that she would have to suspend disbelief in order to believe that the surge is working. Well, the surge is working.So I just think what that means is al Qaeda wins. They tell the world that. And we fight here again and around the Middle East. And their dedication is to follow us home. All I can say is that this will be a big issue in the election as we approach November because at least a growing number of Americans, though still frustrated and understandably so, believe that this strategy has succeeded.
…But when you look at what has happened over the last year, in the view of most objective observers, it is a pretty remarkable improvement.
| 
How, precisely, does McCain reconcile his claim that "the surge is working" with the fact that he wasn't able to revisit the same market he attended only a year ago? Oh that's right, he can't, but nobody will bother to ask him about it, so it's a moot point.
Let's not forget a problem for HRC here too, namely that she applauded the surge's success in Bush's last SOTU address.
Posted by Jake | March 17, 2008 11:37 AM