McCain's Iraq Political Judgement

Former White House communications director Dan Bartlett tells Politico that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's wish for a timetable for removing American troops hurts John McCain.

“Time will tell, but the al-Maliki comments about a timetable is very close to a game-changing event," Bartlett told my colleague Daniel Libit in an interview. "That was incredibly damaging [to McCain],because it neutralized one of [Obama’s] biggest liabilities."

McCain took the Bush position. Partly for political purposes; which is a bad way to decide military matters. McCain painted himself firmly into the position that troops will never leave Iraq. He never factored getting past the Republican nomination or that the Iraqis strongly oppose a long term U.S. presence. McCain made a bad call and it may cost him the election.