McCain in a box

By Creature

After a weekend spent trying to discredit the news that Iraq's prime minister backs Obama's radical, stubborn, judgment-free, naive, terrorist-friendly, and extremely cut-and-runny withdrawal plan it seems today the last nail was put in the box McCain suddenly finds himself trapped in:

Iraq’s government spokesman is hopeful that U.S. combat forces could be out of the country by 2010.

Ali al-Dabbagh made the comments following a meeting in Baghdad on Monday between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in the day.

The timeframe is similar to Obama’s proposal to pull back combat troops within 16 months. The Iraqi government has been trying to clarify its position on a possible troop withdrawal since al-Maliki was quoted in a German magazine last week saying he supported Obama’s timetable.

The events of this weekend, and now this, clearly signal a game changing scenario for Iraq and the presidential contest. With McCain left holding the 100-year-war bag, and Obama's judgment validated by the sovereign government in Iraq, the only thing left to be determined is how big a life-support line will the media throw McCain in order to keep his candidacy alive.

Update: If this Today Show appearance is any indication, McCain is not only in a box, he's digging himself a hole inside that box. All he's got is his glorious surge and even that is not all it's cracked up to be.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)