McCain Losing More Credibility On Iraq (Wait, Did He Have Any Left?)

To the extent that he had any credibility on Iraq left, Sen. John McCain has continued to lose his grip on it the last two days.

First, on Monday McCain told Bill "The Gambler" Bennett that "there are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through." He then chastised Wolf Blitzer for saying that it's not safe for Americans to even leave the Green Zone, saying "General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media."

When asked about McCain's claims about the overall safety of Baghdad and General Petraeus, CNN reporter Michael Ware, who has been in Iraq for the last four years, called McCain's statements "ludicrous" and said that the military people he had spoken to had even laughed at McCain's statements about Petraeus. Watch the video on ThinkProgress here.

McCain has big problems when it comes to Iraq and his presidential candidacy. He more than anyone else has tied himself to this escalation in Iraq, and with that has aligned himself even more closely to Bush. He has everything riding on the war working out, and because of that he has been more and more willing to say outlandish things about things going well there. It's one thing for a clown like Joe Lieberman to say ridiculous things like "There's no civil war in Iraq." Everyone knows Lieberman is a Bush lackey and he doesn't even pretend to be anything different. But McCain is supposed to be Mr. Straight Talk Express, and to the extent that people still think he's a maverick, despite his kowtowing to the religious right, flip-flopping on torture and campaign finance reform, and so many other political maneuverings, looking like a quack on Iraq is going to be what ruins his dreams of the White House for good.