A new election-year coalition with plans to spend millions to combat John McCain's candidacy and to highlight the costs of the Iraq War was announced this week in Washington. Called the Iraq Campaign, the effort marks a resurgence of MoveOn and staff-based campaigning backed by SEIU and well-heeled liberal donors.
MoveOn also plans an independent campaign. In a January 17 memo, MoveOn's executive director Eli Pariser sketched the group's 2008 goals as: taking the fight to prowar senators and threatening them with "political extinction"; "keeping the pressure on Democrats in Congress to block blank checks"; "making sure that our next president has a clear mandate on Iraq."
McCain's position on withdrawing troops is that these decisions should be based on advice from the military, always considering strategic US interests. Obama and Hillary talk about immediate drawdowns and arbitrary timetables, which seems to me to be irresponsible. As the evidence mounts that the US military effort is succeeding, McCain's position is the stronger one. The question is, are voters willing to stomach McCain's straight talk on Iraq?
