Says TPM Reader BH …
I agree with the points of your “Please, please, reporters with brains” entry, but I think you might need to be included in the group of reporters/bloggers/etc. that is following the McCain script. As usual, there will basically be two responses to this story – both favorable to McCain. The first will be the hoards of dutiful reporters parroting whatever interpretation McCain feeds them. The second will be the righteously indignant Obama defenders with all their nuanced facts decrying his innocence. So, what we get is a strong and offensive position versus a correct, but overly cerebral and defensive argument. Strategy versus tactics? Come on – the wingnuts must laugh their asses off every time they see this script play out.
Why cede the offensive position? The offensive rebuttal is to first completely ignore the way McCain framed the position and then just flip it around – “why does McCain so desperately want to convince the public that his Iraq policy is just like Obama’s?” Because the public long ago figured out that he was stuck carrying Bush’s turd and McCain damn well knows his campaign is swirling the drain along with it. What’s more to be said than “John McCain would LOVE to convince the public that he and Obama don’t differ in their Iraq policy – why is that? Because McCain and Bush got us into this Iraq nightmare and the public knows that Obama will get us out.” Repeat after me – McCain and Bush got us into this Iraq nightmare and Obama will get us out. Repeat. Repeat.
