Sour grapes

Unless you hadn't already noticed, Barack Obama is currently dashing around the Middle East and Europe to try and boost his foreign policy credentials.

This has created a campaign headache for John McCain's team; one of their main lines of attack until recently had been that Obama hadn't visited Iraq in almost three years - they even had a clock on his official website counting the time since Obama last visited the country (now removed).

Obama's visit simultaneously removes that line of attack as well as boosting his credentials on foreign policy.

McCain's team is now resorting to criticising Obama for announcing the detail of his Iraq policy in advance of his visit to the country. They are also trying to portray Obama as a 'flip-flopper' (see video below) - the worst kind of smear a Presidential candidate can suffer.

Fox News was also running items over the weekend bemoaning the "liberal" media for their anti-McCain bias and heavy focus on this Middle East/Europe trip.

This seems like sour grapes to me - the McCain campaign should have anticipated that Obama would take steps to address a perceived weakness in his armory. They should have been better prepared for it. And anticipated it being headline news.



McCain may well prove to be right to want to tough the Iraq mess out. However, Iraq remains a running sore in the US - as elsewhere in the world - with the majority of US citizens now opposing the action and wanting troops home. In this light, moves to reduce and withdraw troops from the country are likely to prove popular.

In any event, the economy is likely to be a more salient issue come November. Iraq may just prove to be a distraction.

• Elsewhere, a journalist with the New Yorker, which recently printed 'that' satrical image of the Obamas engaging in a 'terrorist fist bump' - Ryan Lizza - has been barred from the Obama tour this week, presumably in retribution for the cartoon. The image was damaging, but refusing access to the trip is another case of sour grapes.