WP, pg1: Campaign Jousting Returns to Iraq War; McCain, Obama Trade Attacks

[DeepModem Mom]

Campaign Jousting Returns to Iraq War
McCain, Obama Trade Attacks
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 30, 2008; A01

After a strong push from Sen. John McCain's allies, the war in Iraq has moved back to center stage in the presidential election, with McCain attacking Sen. Barack Obama for making up his mind about the war without visiting the war zone and Obama charging that McCain has yet to learn the lessons of President Bush's mistakes....

Obama aides said yesterday that the senator from Illinois is now considering a trip to Iraq as part of a long-deferred foreign tour. But they made it clear that he intends to assess how best to withdraw U.S. forces, not to reconsider whether they should be withdrawn. And they responded that none of McCain's trips to Iraq has been illuminating enough to dislodge his commitment to Bush's war policies....

Both campaigns think the Iraq debate will work to their advantage. McCain and the Republican Party will use it to paint their likely general-election opponent as a foreign policy naif, too weak to defend the country. Obama and his Democratic allies will turn the war into a proxy for their efforts to portray a McCain victory as a third Bush term.

But new public opinion polling suggests the war is more a wild card than a slam dunk for either side. While voters still see the invasion of Iraq as a mistake, they are divided about the current course of the war and where to go from here. McCain continues to be favored as the candidate most trusted on the issue -- albeit with a statistically insignificant edge. But most Americans favor Obama's central position, withdrawing combat forces.

"What's surprising to me is that a Republican is doing better than a Democrat on this issue at all," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which released a new national poll on the election yesterday. "That really says something about the lingering doubts and concerns voters have with Obama."

Republican strategists think the fight over Iraq may be the strongest ground for McCain to fight on. If nothing else, it pulls the campaign away from the domestic issues that voters want addressed but which favor the Democrats....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052903844_pf.html

[ladjf]

1. Obama should stay out of Iraq. The limited amount of positive

contacts with the situation there weighed against the extreme security needs rules out the visit in my opinion. Why take the risk for some imagined political gain?

[DeepModem Mom]

2. I think I agree with you. nt