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Maliki endorses the Obama 16 month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.  

“That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.”

And Maliki goes on to say that this position is, in fact, victory.

“So far the Americans have had trouble agreeing to a concrete timetable for withdrawal, because they feel it would appear tantamount to an admission of defeat,” Maliki told SPIEGEL. “But that isn’t the case at all. If we come to an agreement, it is not evidence of a defeat, but of a victory, of a severe blow we have inflicted on al-Qaida and the militias.”

I agree with Josh Marshall.  This is game, set, and match on Iraq.  The issue is closed.  

My first instinct is always to try not to overstate the impact of momentary developments. But I don’t think it’s enough to say this is a huge development. It’s huger than that. In a stroke, I think, al Maliki has cut McCain off at the knees in a way I’m not sure his campaign strategy can recover from.

How does McCain respond to this?  I’m having trouble imagining it myself.  If he disagrees with Maliki, McCain is essentially advocating a forced occupation of a country whose US-supported government wants us out.  What is the point of arguing over our troop presence in Iraq, when Iraq is saying the Obama plan is what they want?

Even if somehow McCain comes up with some kind of contrasting response, the longer McCain argues it, the more irrelevant and out of touch McCain becomes.  If he argues against the Maliki-endorsed Obama withdrawal plan, he is literally arguing a position that NO ONE desires.  Not American voters, not Congress, not Iraqis, not the rest of the world.  No one.  McCain is really boxed in, and I can’t see a way for him to get out.  

For Obama, if this trip was all about “foreign policy credentials”, having Maliki stand next to you and say that he basically endorses your plan for Iraq is not just burnishing credentials, it is getting results, even before he is elected president.  It’s as if Joe Biden went over there 3 years ago with his partition plan, and the Iraqi government the day before he arrived said, yep.  Partition.  That’s what we want.  You want foreign policy credentials?  I’ll see your credentials and raise you a solution.

And lets move on to what McCain’s sycophants in the Ohio blogosphere are supposed to do now.  The New Yorker cover completely ridiculed their constant terrorist drumbeat about Obama, and now they are silent on that issue.  And today, Maliki has completely castrated the McCain position on Iraq, which Ohio wingnut bloggers have been defending without the slightest thought.  

So my question to Ohio wingnut bloggers is this - Do you agree with Iraqi PM Maliki?  

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