They're the two top candidates for President, so I hardly think they should be referred to as "spare[s]." Or did you mean "spar"?

Cheers,

a grammar nazi

To those who keep saying that Obama is going to get eaten alive by the republican slime machine. This guy is quick on his feet. I am going to love watching those odious GOP cheap-shot bastards get beaten at their own game.

Go get him, Barack!

Why they're there at this point doesn't address the specific question and if you are so hidebound that you can't acknowledge reality then that's a problem. After all Obama is the guy who wants to dialog with everyone. Does he even know who that is?

clearly, most americans are dimwits. most are aggressive thugs. clearly, the republican leadership regard running the nation as a tool in inflating their personal wealth, through oil and munitions. clearly, democrat leadership is not much better, nor are their followers much smarter.

and that's how dubya got elected, twice. i blame the school teachers of america. clearly,they failed in inculcating any skills in their charges beyond, possibly, making change and reading an ad for a new skin-care product.

Very nice comeback.

Is he's not going to be able to pull out.

Is going to start focusing on all the other shit he said.

Obama is hitting back very directly. I'm loving it.

Everything Obama said: ditto, PLUS:

We went into Iraq and dropped the ball on Afghanistan. Now whatever gains we might make against "al Qaeda in Iraq" are being undone, and worse, by our losses to "al Qaeda in Afghanistan."

This is really burning my gut. 9/11! 9/11!

We should be using 9/11 on our side. Look at Afghanistan. It's a disaster.

We would have had a chance there if we hadn't gone into Iraq.

I've never been in that country but I read about it a lot after 9/11 and I've become attached to it through reading.

It breaks my heart that things are turning out this way.

That's what Obama can say.

and his superhawk comments like being in Iraq for 100 years would suit him just fine...how can he dare try going toe-to-toe with Obama on Iraq?

Can't wait til McCain hoots "bring it on!" just like Cowboy G.

Even military assessments put their activity at about 4-5% of the violence occuring in the region. When we leave, they will have no further purpose and any further violence from them will just bring down the wrath of Al-Sadr or whoever is in control at the time.

It's trying to prevent a full-blown civil war that will be the true test and that will require adroit diplomacy among a number of disparate sectarian groups. McCain is clearly not up to this task and I have my money on Barack Hussein Obama.

I'd much rather hear a plan for how to deal with the current situation than handing out blame for how we got there.

"I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. It's called 'al-Qaida in Iraq,'"

I have some news for you: Al-Qaida and Al-Qaida in Iraq are two different groups.

The school teachers are failing because they're too busy trying to teach test-taking skills to children who lack the imagination and curiosity necessary in order to demand better. Just so no child gets "left behind." It's all part of the plan, man. Keep 'em drugged and incurious; they're easier to manipulate that way.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Bush/Cheney Inc. Available for (Republican) parties and scaring (adults into thinking like) children.

Huh?

As a previous poster pointed out, al-Qaida in Iraq is responsible for a very small amount of the insurgency in Iraq. Its presence in Iraq has been overblown by the administration -- and refuted by several intelligence reports issues by our own government -- as part of Bush's attempt to link 9/11 to his war of choice in Iraq. McCain, has no point, other than to spread the same pack of lies of the current administration.

You also got the other thing backward. It is Obama who is proposing a way to get out of the mess -- divert attention away from Iraq and put it back on Afghanistan. Sure, it makes the most sense to work to get out of a bad situation than it does to put blame on the folks who created it. But, as the man said last night, in so many words, only an idiot would look to the person who drove the bus into a ditch to get it out.

Both candidates do have plans for the situation in Iraq and both have stated them clearly. Re-read the article. It's about the words that were exchanged between the two senators, not what their plans are for Iraq.

Funny how subjective that always sounds. And, how it invariably leads to us getting "there" again.

Way to go Barack! I'm totally thrilled and looking forward to plenty more of this skewering that the GOP will receive between now and November. Its been a long time a' coming and Barack (definitely not Clinton) is the candidate to do this.

Congrats on your first post and on being a newly minted letter writer-- thanks to the "no more anonymous" policy!

Because the major media won't do it, Obama and the Dems running for office need to remind voters/viewers/listeners that McCon was right there with his lips firmly planted on GWB-and-Cheney's cheeks as they sent our troops into death and mayhem.

For those who watched the debate (McCain obviously not being one of them), this comment was in response to a dumb Tim Russert hypothetical about the future after we leave Iraq. It was a ridiculous question to begin with, which Hillary pointed out before they answered it anyway.

Barack Obama is fully aware of what's going on in Iraq -- he predicted it in 2000 -- and I for one cannot wait to hear the actual face-to-face debate between him and McCain on this topic when we, finally, get to the general election.

Kiss your ambition goodbye, John. You're going to be Obamafied.