As veterans rallied outside the Legislative Building today in support of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, I noticed with interest this blurb from Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online.
Goldberg warns McCain’s supporters against placing too much emphasis on McCain’s support for the troop surge in Iraq:
McCain was right about the surge and Obama was wrong. Period, full stop.
But
so what? McCain already crushes Obama on the question(s) of who’s got
better foreign policy judgment/who’s more qualified to be
commander-in-chief. If McCain’s supporters convince America that Obama
was wrong on the surge or get him to admit it, McCain’s advantage on
that front will go up a couple more points.Wahoo.
While
McCain’s supporters are taking a bow for scoring a few debater’s
points, the surge’s success in the real world makes voting for Obama
seem less risky. Obama doesn’t have to persuade Americans he’s better
than McCain on the commander-in-chief test, he just needs to persuade
Americans he’s minimally qualified to be commander-in-chief. The
electorate wants to vote Democratic. It wants the war to be over
(though it doesn’t want to feel like it was a waste either). The
surge’s success enables voters to feel comfortable voting for the
riskier candidate.
Read the rest of the linked entry to learn Goldberg’s ideas for helping McCain emphasize his foreign policy bona fides. And link here for musings on Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism.
