What Candidate Demonstrates Better Judgment?

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No military surge, no matter how brilliantly performed, can succeed without political reconciliation and a surge of diplomacy in Iraq and the region. Iraq’s leaders are not reconciling. They are not achieving political benchmarks.”
- Senator Barack Obama, August 19, 2007, in an address at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
By way of Bottomline Upfront:
Fifteen of Eighteen Benchmarks Met in Iraq (outperforming our own Congress, of course)

BBC Reports on the Rebirth of Baghdad (also reported in Der Spiegel)

Also, from an unpublished blogpost I started about a week ago:
Progress of Iraqi Army, including logistics.
Turnabout in Iraq a ‘Miracle’

So which presidential candidate was correct about the Surge strategy?

Senator Obama, or Senator McCain? Which candidate refused to meet with General Petraeus, make a trip to Iraq- even if for nothing more than a photo-op- and see for himself what the current conditions on the ground might be like, in aftermath of the New Baghdad Security Plan?
Senator McCain supported the Surge strategy, without flinching at the possible political damage he may incur from such an unpopular position; he was steadfast and stubborn at a time when so many Americans were growing war-weary (even though most are at the mall, and not personally investing of themselves in the Iraq Battle and in the Long War), because McCain understood the high cost of failure. McCain did the right thing, even when it wasn’t the popular position to take, and staked his political life on the Surge:

“The decline in the polls of [McCain], as measured against [Clinton], reflects more than declining Republican popularity nationally in the weeks after the election,” writes Novak in his exclusive report. “It connotes public disenchantment with McCain’s aggressive advocacy of a ’surge’ of up to 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq.”

Here is Senator McCain supporting the Surge strategy, before it became cool to do so:

Sen. John McCain said that he is willing to stake his presidential campaign, as well as his political career, on his support for the war in Iraq.

In an interview with reporters on the back of his campaign bus, the “Straight Talk Express” Monday afternoon, McCain said that even in retrospect he would still have voted to authorize the war, as he did in 2002.

“I think there’s no question,” said the Republican’s likely presidential nominee. “I owe too much to these young people who are serving there to let political considerations interfere with what I know is right.

“I believe the American people, over time, will side with me, but if they don’t I’ll accept that,” he said. “I’d much rather lose a political campaign than lose a war.”

With McCain, I get the sense that even if I don’t agree with his convictions all of the time, at least he stands by them. With Obama, I get a chameleon whose keyword is, “change”.

Source: Flopping Aces » Blog Archive Which Candidate Demonstrated the Better Judgment?