... After The Next Election

Apparently John McCain is not as eager as some believe to distinguish himself from Bush. Speaking about the Iraq war,

“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom,’’ Mr. McCain said at the Columbus Convention Center. “The Iraq War has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced.’’

So we'll see great progress... after the next election. Okay, and how will this be achieved?

“I don’t think it has anything to do with fantasy, I think it has everything to do with setting goals and achieving.’’

Yes, candidate McCain, but how will this be achieved? No answer? Okay, let's try another question....

If your "flowers and candy in 2013" scenario doesn't actually pan out, and things continue to be as bad as they are now, how long will you keep U.S. forces in Iraq? Oh... no answer to that question, either. Wait a minute - isn't your giving a timetable something that can be taken by the enemy as a sign of surrender and a date they need only await? This is different, you say? Because you'll stay in Iraq until the job is done, even if it takes more than four-and-a-half years? But you still won't tell us how long?

Well, if you can't give us specifics, can you at least share a few more of your pipe dreams? You can? Great.

In Afghanistan, he said, an increase in actionable intelligence will have led to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden.....

And you're basing this assertion on... oh yes, sorry, I forgot. Pipe dreams. Got more?

On domestic policy, Mr. McCain projected that the United States will have experienced several years of “robust economic growth;’’ a reduction in the corporate tax rate; and the beginning of a phase out of the alternative minimum tax.

Because moon fairies will come down to the Earth and sprinkle the economy with magic fairy dust, and...

Oh, sorry. As you said, this has nothing to do with fantasy. How could I have forgotten. We're to assume that you have a rock-solid plan to get us out of the war in Vietnam, er, Iraq, fix the economy, and all that. But it's a secret.