McCain’s Big Mistake

Posted By: Nick

 
Writing at The Huffington Post, Matt Littman says that “John McCain has made the biggest mistake in politics.”  What is the mistake?  He told Barack Obama to go to Iraq.

Senator McCain, knowing that he held an edge on Barack Obama on the “Commander in Chief” question, badly overplayed his hand. He taunted Senator Obama on his lack of foreign policy experience and he challenged Obama to go to Iraq. He sneered at Obama for formulating an Iraq policy prior to traveling to the war zone. He even offered to go with him to Iraq, as if Obama needed his hand held by the man with military experience.

Of course Obama went to Iraq.  And Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, and Germany.  And so far, the trip has been an incredible success.  Obama has looked every bit like the President.  The images have been striking.

To make matters worse, McCain has made a series of errors in his public statements.  The contrast between the two candidates over the past few days has been interesting, to say the least.  Littman sums up:

All John McCain has done, with his childish taunting of Obama, is create a situation where Obama has now gone overseas; been seen with General Petraeus smiling, looking Presidential; been photographed with world leaders who seem excited by the prospect of an Obama Presidency, and shown, by images, that he fits in just fine on the world stage; and, of course, Obama has taken all the media attention with him when McCain is desperate for media coverage.

This trip would not have happened without McCain’s taunting — and so, Barack Obama would never have gone on this trip and looked this good if McCain had not made such a stunning mistake in urging him to do so.

Did McCain kill his chance of becoming President?  I think it’s still a bit too early to tell.  But keep an eye on the polling over the next week or so, and pay attention to where the narrative of this campaign moves from here.  The past week may just have been the turning point in this campaign.