In an Onion-worthy column in the Washington Post, Michael Gerson argues that the McCain is a Casualty of the Surge he so brilliantly championed. The reason he is losing is that he is the victim of his own sucess!
This is the most stunining example of pre-emptive legacy burnishing that I have ever seen. Here's a sample:
McCain, it turns out, was tragically and gloriously right -- as right as Winston Churchill during his wilderness years.
Gerson breathlessly repeats all of the usual pro-surge orthodoxy:
...the positive results have become undeniable, as violence in Iraq has plummeted, normality has returned to markets, and neighbors and political accommodations have moved forward
Oh yes, so much has changed. Tell me again about the "normality returning to markets" and "neighbors and political accomodations have moved forward." If you say it enough, maybe it is true. Or maybe by progress you mean Iraq asking us to leave and agreeing with Obama's timetable approach as opposed to McCain's 100 year occupation. But somehow I doubt that's the progress Gerson is claiming.
There is also the obligatory counterfactual prophecy of doom and gloom had we tried to withdraw a year ago (as everyone basically accepts we will finally do soon):
Obama supported measures to block the surge, either by denying funding or by imposing constraints that would have hobbled its implementation. And the results that would have flowed from a congressionally mandated failure in Iraq do not require much prophetic ability to imagine. A genocidal civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. The dominance of Iran within Iraq. The collapse of American credibility in the region. The choice of Sunni powers to either make their deal with Iran or seek nuclear weapons themselves. The gleeful celebration of al-Qaeda. The impossibility of pursuing our goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan, since our allies would justly doubt our will.
Wow. Thank goodness we avoided all that! Instead, thanks to John McCain "tragically and gloriously right" McCain we are winning the war, which has taken it off the table. The reason the Iraq war is no longer the number one issue facing voters is not the economic meltdown that has us all grabbing our wallet, no its, the fact that John "Winston Churchill" McCain won the damn war for us.
That's right, John McCain "may lose the election, in part, because he helped win a war." Ahhh, the humanity! What a noble way to go!
In short, "my friends," is the most clever and sublimely ridiculous piece of pre-emptive John McCain and GOP-legacy rehabilitation I have seen yet. Hat's off to Gerson. And boos to all of you ungrateful bastards who are voting for the guy who would have sent us into global terroristic armageddon!
P.S. Note that sneaky "Congressionally mandated failure" line that Gerson tossed in there. That pesky Congress, screwing up the brilliant Bush/McCain war plan!