Posted by Jed Lewison on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 12:10 PM Pacific

Attacking Americans

Two things for you: first, my new video, "John McCain's Neverending War" will be posted at or around one o'clock Pacific time. I'm just finishing up a couple of last details with it.

Second, via Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog, John McCain lashed out at Barack Obama today, but in the process, attacked all Americans who want to end the war in Iraq. Here's what he said (also in the vodpod):

It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.

Here's the thing: the logical extension of McCain's argument is that most American voters want to lose the war, which of course in McCain's terms is entirely unpatriotic. So while he is attacking Barack Obama for giving Americans what they want, he is also attacking Americans for wanting what they want.

Of course McCain's attack has another problem: it is also a distortion of Barack Obama's views. Barack Obama has been against the war in Iraq from the start, even when it was unpopular, even when John McCain was still basking in George W. Bush's glow at every chance he could get. And more importantly, he thinks the best thing the United States could do for Iraq at this time is to withdraw and restore its sovereignty.

McCain, meanwhile, wants an open-ended commitment to Iraq -- at least until its oil fields run dry.

Why does this McCain seem like someone who is bent avenging the bitterness of wars gone by?