BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Well, just to get an overview of how the three candidates worked the General and the Ambassador, I’ll start with John McCain.

Poor old John.  Well, today questioning General Petraeus, John McCain made the same old mistake.  He confused al-Qaeda with the Shi’ites.  Now, this is something he has had plenty of time to figure out.  After all Joe Lieberman corrected him a couple of times already…. on camera… tapped him on the shoulder and corrected him.  And yet, John still can’t remember the difference.  Otherwise, John McCain asked nothing of substance. 

Hillary Clinton took the opportunity to chastise the administration.  She spoke clearly about her point of view and made her point.  But, it looked more like a political campaign soundbite than questioning.  However, if must be said that she looked in control and poised.

Barack Obama finally got to question the witnesses late in the day.  I was somewhat surprised by his questions.  And, I wouldn’t want to play chess with him.  He asked General Petraeus if the conditions on the ground today in Iraq could be sustained with 30,000 troops would that be considered a success.  At first, I didn’t quite follow his questions, but in retrospect it is easy to see that he was laying bait for the future.  And, it seemed that General Petraeus got the point.

Now, I know that Senator Biden isn’t a candidate, but he closed the days hearings by saying that we are running out of time and money for this war and that while he appreciated the time of both the general and the ambassador had spent before the committees, he said it was time for the surge.  According to Biden there has been no surge yet, at least where diplomacy is concerned.