Point: McCain

For all his intelligence, eloquence and charisma, Barack Obama still has miles to go before he can match war-chat with John McCain. Here's what he published earlier:

"This country is united in our support for our troops, but we also owe them a plan to relieve them of the burden of policing someone else's civil war. Governor Romney and Senator McCain clearly believe the course we are on in Iraq is working, but I do not.

"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.

"Governor Romney and Senator McCain are still supporting a war that has cost us thousands of lives, made us less safe in the world, and resulted in a resurgence of al-Qaeda. It is time to end this war so that we can redeploy our forces to focus on the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and all those who plan to do us harm."

Can you spot the red meat for a Republican challenger, much less a vetaran? A typo-ridden blog may not be the best place to throw down such a challenge, but McCain was no slouch:

"While Senator Obama's two years in the U.S. 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."

"By the way, Senator Obama, it's a 'flak' jacket, not a 'flack' jacket."

And for good sissy/hippie-boy measure, a McCain aide added: "Obama wouldn't know the difference between an RPG and a bong."

(All via Jonathan Martin)