creative commons/flickr/ by nathanf

Nouri al-Maliki destroyed John McCain's position on the Iraq war yesterday. Not only did his spokesman manage to entrench the story in his ostensible walk-back, but everyone's paying attention. Chuck Todd, for instance, noted:

And then what Maliki did, even in the backtrack statement that the spokes--the government spokesperson over there said, he threw in the word "timetable." He's used not just "time is right," but he threw in the word "timetable," which is--the Obama campaign said, you know, that, that--"Thank you for that release."

It's not entirely the case that John McCain's presidential candidacy is dead, but it's in Terry Schiavo territory. Everyone's had fun with the anonymous GOP consultant who told Marc Ambinder, "We're fucked." But that's an understatement. They're really, really fucked. McCain doesn't have anything to say about the economy, doesn't have anything to say about health care, doesn't have anything to say about... anything except national security, and his trump there would be, allegedly, Iraq. And even on Iraq, his message is, in a philosophical sense, a negative one, emphasizing the superiority of his judgment and the alleged immaturity of Obama's. But when the Prime Minister of Iraq publicly agrees with Obama, McCain is beyond fucked -- he's fucked in half with a spiky, acid-tipped dick.

For instance: over at the McCain Report, the campaign's blog written by the brazziere-needing Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard, the top post right now is titled "U.S. Military To Obama: Timetable Sends 'Wrong Signal To Enemy'." LOLerskates! I guess Nouri al-Maliki just sent the wrong signal to his own enemies. If Goldfarb or anyone else associated with the campaign had any idea how to respond to Maliki's statement, there would be something up on the McCain Report by now. For the time being, here's how Randy "Blood For Oil" Scheuneman flailed about, via Ezra Klein:

"The difference between John McCain and Barack Obama is that Barack Obama advocates an unconditional withdrawal that ignores the facts on the ground and the advice of our top military commanders. John McCain believes withdrawal must be based on conditions on the ground. Prime Minister Maliki has repeatedly affirmed the same view, and did so again today. Timing is not as important as whether we leave with victory and honor, which is of no apparent concern to Barack Obama. The fundamental truth remains that Senator McCain was right about the surge and Senator Obama was wrong. We would not be in the position to discuss a responsible withdrawal today if Senator Obama's views had prevailed."

Ezra makes the necessary points here, to which all I'd add is that Scheueman's need to deny what Maliki said will, delightfully, entrench the narrative that McCain is either an imperialist or in the throes of denial.