Sunni. Shiite. Whatever.

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Uh-oh. Looks like McCain had another one of his "senior" moments today. Pressing General Petraeus on the state of al Qaeda in Iraq -- they're a threat, right, right, right? -- he suggested, in a typically leading question, that it is "[c]ertainly not an obscure sect of the Shiites overall."

Dear John: Pay attention, please. Al Qaeda in Iraq is neither obscure nor -- and this is the key point here -- Shiite. I know you've made this mistake before, over and over again, and I know it's not easy for you to get it right when you don't have your buddy Lieberman whispering in your ear, correcting you, but come on.

You pressed Petraeus to give you the answer you wanted to hear (i.e., that, with the "major" al Qaeda-in-Iraq threat, the Iraq War is part of the GWOT), and he gave it, more or less, but once again you exposed not just your bias but your utter lack of credibility on this issue. Do you really know what's going on in Iraq? Do you have any real understanding of Islam, the Middle East, and terrorism that isn't merely a reflection of your partisan warmongering?

Will the media call you out on this, what with the gaffes piling up. Well, they should. For it seems to me that you're looking rather unprepared for anything even close to the presidency.

John McCain, Republican for President:

Clueless? Confused? Indifferent? Incompetent? Senile?

You make the call.