Beyond the Dome

Yes, we’ve come to the point in the campaign where the surrogates are attacking what other surrogates said. But the subject today actually was a serious one: whether Barack Obama would drop his plans to pull one to two brigades out of Iraq each month, and have all combat troops out within 16 months.

On a conference call with reporters, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, on the behalf of the John McCain campaign, jumped on a statement by Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, on behalf of the Obama campaign yesterday about Obama’s Iraq policy. In an interview on MSNBC, McCaskill was asked whether Obama would change his plan, given that an article in the New Yorker concluded that “his original plan, if implemented now, could revive the badly wounded Al Qaeda in Iraq, reenergize the Sunni insurgency, embolden Moqtada al-Sadr to recoup his militia’s recent losses to the Iraqi Army, and return the central government to a state of collapse.”

McCaskill gave probably the only answer she could have given: “No, he will not.” (It’s usually frowned upon when surrogates announce major changes in policy.)

But on a conference call with reporters today, Cantor, said the exchange proved that Obama’s policy “ignores the facts on the ground” and accused him of “clinging to a very ideological commitment on his part, and, frankly, a commitment to some left-wing supporters that he won’t change his mind.”

Campaign spokesman Brian Rogers put it another way, referring to Obama’s reported plans to visit Iraq sometime this summer: “If indeed, you know, he’s going to go to Iraq, and nothing that he sees will change or impact his decision-making on this, then why is he going?”

It’s clear from the exchange how McCain is trying to box Obama in on Iraq. If Obama ever actually said he’ll change his withdrawal plans because Iraq is becoming more stable, well, what a flip-flopper. If he doesn’t, even if he learns new things when he visits Iraq, he’s a close-minded ideologue.

It’s still nothing compared to the dilemma McCain faces, as a staunch supporter of an unpopular war that will tie him to President Bush for the rest of the campaign. But the surrogate debate foreshadows a real problem Obama could face if he wins the presidency.

If, indeed, the reality of the Iraq war that greets him is different than the one he campaigned on, he could easily face the change or no-change dilemma all over again.

And then, the stakes would be greater than just winning or losing a campaign.

Hope you all have a happy Fourth! Back on Thursday, July 10.