Things got really ugly just when the Democratic primary was looking like it might be over faster than a Coleman Scott wrestling match.
Senators Obama and Clinton are currently mired in a fight over what was (a few months ago) a better than average shot of being the next president.
Then came the Texas primary where Clinton used what Obama called the kitchen sink strategy and convinced the Republic of Texas that Obama is a heavy sleeper. Fighting ensued and will eventually culminate in a Michigan primary do-over on June 3.
This Democratic in-fighting has left McCain in a good position to make strides to woo the Republican-weary public for two more months.
This is a problem.
That is not to say that McCain is not the better choice. After all, the Democrats might deserve to lose after they rescheduled the originally meaningless Michigan primary in which Senator Clinton slightly edged out “uncommitted” by a margin of fourteen percent.
But regardless of who deserves to win, this squabble between Democrats is cutting into the time meant for battling McCain. This is the problem.
At this point, Americans should be focused on Iraq and the economy instead of Obama’s crazy pastor or Clinton’s perplexing decision to lie about sniper fire.
This month the Iraq war reached its fifth anniversary. Ignoring the traditional gift of wood (it is okay frat guys, you can laugh), Joseph Stiglitz — a Nobel Laureate economist — gave the Iraq War its first thorough economic impact analysis.
Based on his estimate, the war’s price tag, when accounting for foreseeable future costs, is $3 trillion.
The bulk of this debt comes from the interest Stiglitz estimates we will pay on the borrowed $500 billion we have already spent on the war, as well as another $500 billion in health care costs for veterans of the war.
This is all to say nothing of the human costs of the war.
John McCain is gaining steam behind his campaign which advocates continued involvement in Iraq.
McCain argues, with the backing of U.S. military officials, that the surge is working and that we can win this war.
While I hope that this is true and that for everything that has been sacrificed in Iraq we can stabilize the region, the uncontested McCain campaign has not been forced to answer the question of how he plans to pay for continuing the war.
The Bush model for paying for the war is the classically American put-it-on-my-tab approach to finance. This method of payment allows Americans to have their cake and bomb it too.
This foreign debt, paired with other economic factors, has led to inflation and increased prices on everything from oil to Eliot Spitzer’s hooker. $80,000, really?
As a nation we should either commit to this war or bow out. If we truly believe in this war, we should pay for it and not defer payments like it’s a student loan.
Although I may be delusional to think so, I think that a clear Democratic challenger will force McCain to address this issue.
Whoever the Democratic challenger, they should remember the slogan of the 1992 Clinton campaign: It’s the economy, stupid.
Because it is the economy; which means it is also Iraq, stupid.
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