Love for McCain continues

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If you have a few minutes, check out the debate recap by Liz Mair from GOPProgress.com. I was planning on doing a thorough analysis of the debate but Liz hit the nail on the head in so many ways. Here are some excerpts but I really do recommend that you read the whole thing:



"But here's where McCain's point comes into play. Ultimately, the reality of the situation in Iraq is that if we haven't seen substantial progress by September, we're going to have a lot of options on the table to assess, and none of them will be good. As McCain implicitly acknowledged, if this situation came to pass, you can bet there would be vastly diminished political will for keeping the troops in Iraq. The flipside of course is that if we just withdraw, we risk leaving Iraq in an incredibly dangerous situation-- both for its citizens, and for ourselves, both in terms of the potential terrorist-haven scenario and (more importantly, in my view) in terms of the spiraling-out-of-control regional hotbed scenario-- and in all of those cases, there is a great likelihood that in due course, we would find ourselves right back fighting the same people, in the same place, months or years down the road, regardless of any withdrawal right here, and right now."


"Ultimately, McCain earned credit from me for not running the tired and rather simplistic and therefore only half-accurate line that "we have to win because if we don't beat them there, we'll have to fight them here." That may be true on one level, but as I've said before, it's not the best argument to make in relation to staying in Iraq (or, rather, against the pursuit of other options) and frankly, it sounds desperate, pathetic, fear-mongering and propagandist to most people now. Instead of falling for the simple talking point, McCain actually offered some thoughts, some rationale and some logic-- all of which are in desperately short supply in politics these days."


"McCain was also brilliant, as pretty much all the major pundits have noted, in responding to the young woman whose brother died in Iraq. He was genuine, heartfelt, sympathetic, compassionate and honest. His response to her was perhaps the finest moment of the entire debate, and he absolutely shone. If there is any argument for a McCain presidency, it is essentially the character and personality that was demonstrated by his response to her question."