Lots of 'flak' on Iraq

As they say, the top three issues in the 2008 presidential race are Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq.

Two leading Democratic candidates for president, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, voted against the war funding bill that came before Congress yesterday, drawing rebukes today from Mitt Romney and John McCain, both of whom have supported President Bush on the Iraq war.

Romney said their vote "defines their lack of leadership and serves as a glaring example of an unrealistic and inexperienced worldview on national security that is regrettably shared by too many of their fellow Capitol Hill Democrats." McCain said their votes "may win favor with MoveOn and liberal primary voters, but it's the equivalent of waving a white flag to al Qaeda."

So Obama then hit back with his own statement criticizing both of them. "Governor Romney and Senator McCain clearly believe the course we are on in Iraq is working, but I do not," Obama said. "And if there ever was a reflection of that it's the fact that Senator McCain required a flack jacket, ten armored Humvees, two Apache attack helicopters, and 100 soldiers with rifles by his side to stroll through a market in Baghdad just a few weeks ago."

McCain, of course, couldn't let that stand and just released a counter statement that tries to highlight Obama's thin experience in the Senate. To wit:

"While Senator Obama's two years in the US Senate certainly entitle him to vote against funding our troops, my service and experience combined with conversations with military leaders on the ground in Iraq lead me to believe that we must give this new strategy a chance to succeed because the consequences of failure would be catastrophic to our nation's security."

Wait, that wasn't all. You can almost see McCain smirking as he wrote the kicker: "By the way, Senator Obama, it's a 'flak' jacket, not a 'flack' jacket."