The surge suit

MANIFESTO

In trying to figure out what went on this weekend, I keep reading about Senator Septuagenarian's new campaign strategy, viz., "it seems that John McCain now plans to run his campaign almost entirely on the surge, and his claim that he was right about it and Obama wrong."

Certainly that was Senator Sanctimony's talking point on Sunday (see below): that the surge had been a success, and it was thanks to the forward thinking of his bosom buddy from Arizona.

Now, however, with Iraq's announcement that it pretty much embraces Obama's exit timetable, this sorry scheme seems doomed. At any rate, Jonah Goldberg sees it for what it is.

It's understandable why so many Republicans see the surge as an ideal political battleground. Outside foreign policy, McCain's standing with the GOP base is often shaky. The party doesn't have a lot of policy wins to brag about. And Obama doesn't have much of a record to attack. Also, many hawks -- often called neoconservatives -- see the surge as vindication that they were right about the feasibility of the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. It was President Bush's bungling that was wrong, they say, not the war itself.

Whatever the merits of all that, there's a problem. As political analysis, it's nonsense.

It's certainly not surprising that the surge strategy is nonsense, given its proponent.