Obama hits a home run - McCain swings and misses

Polls will show that Barack Obama hit a home run today saying what he needed to say about race in America. (See update below) Meanwhile John McCain showed the American people and the world that he is just as clueless about Iraq as he is the economy.
A McCain Gaffe in Jordan

AMMAN, Jordan -- Sen. John McCain, traveling in the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise, misidentified in remarks Tuesday which broad category of Iraqi extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran.

He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Shiite extremists in Iraq.

Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back."

Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."

The mistake threatened to undermine McCain's argument that his decades of foreign policy experience make him the natural choice to lead a country at war with terrorists. In recent days, McCain has repeatedly said his intimate knowledge of foreign policy make him the best equipped to answer a phone ringing in the White House late at night.

Do you really want an old clueless fool answering that phone with his finger on the button? Justin Logan at CATO sums it up very well.

Yet another lesson that talk can be simultaneously straight and wrong. The persistence of this sort of unified field theory of terrorism is truly remarkable. Anyone who’s reading the newspapers knows that Iran is, of all countries in the region, most supportive of the Iraqi government. Don’t take my word for it: ask Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who referred to President Ahmadinejad on his recent victory lap visit to Iraq as a “brother.” And then there’s al Qaeda in Iraq, which is not so supportive. It can be difficult to keep all this straight, but the man’s running for president on the basis of his *ahem* peculiar expertise in fighting terrorism, after all.

Update
Charles Murry at the NRO's Corner on the Obama speech

I read the various posts here on "The Corner," mostly pretty ho-hum or critical about Obama's speech. Then I figured I'd better read the text (I tried to find a video of it, but couldn't). I've just finished. Has any other major American politician ever made a speech on race that comes even close to this one? As far as I'm concerned, it is just plain flat out brilliant—rhetorically, but also in capturing a lot of nuance about race in America. It is so far above the standard we're used to from our pols.... But you know me. Starry-eyed Obama groupie.

Mr Murry isn't going to have as many friends after that.