Jim Geraghty, commenting on Barack Obama’s dismissal of John McCain’s invitation to tour Iraq with him as “a political stunt,” muses,
[I]sn’t Obama vulnerable to the argument that a man who’s pledged to meet unconditionally, one-on-one, face-to-face with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really ought to meet at least once one-on-one with Gen. David Petraeus?
It’s simultaneously superb polemic and rather silly.
While I disagree with Obama on the merits of lending presidential prestige to despots without something substantial in exchange, it’s far from clear what that has to do with taking a gentlemen’s tour of Baghdad. The United States military is not about to allow two Senators, much less the presumptive major party nominees for president, go anywhere near harm’s way so any Iraq visit would indeed be mostly political theater. Surely, Obama is in a position to gather any facts he might wish to have about the war in Iraq? Or even get a few minutes with Petraeus?
Photo: It’s ONLY Politics. Amusingly, I was unable to find any photos of Petraeus and Obama together. A photo search for “Obama Petraeus,” oddly, returned numerous pics of Petraeus with both Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
