Yesterday’s withdrawal timetable statement from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki — he claimed he’s negotiating a deal with Washington that will set a timetable for a withdrawal of foreign forces as part of a framework for a U.S. troop presence into next year — couldn’t be better news for Barack Obama and couldn’t be worse news for John McCain, who’s made staying the course in Iraq the centerpiece of his campaign.
Maliki’s statement “was the first time that Baghdad’s Shiite-led government has made a pullout deadline a condition for a promised new agreement with the United States for a troop presence into 2009.” This seems to me like the big defining moment of the ’08 Presidential race, the end of the legitimacy of the Bush-McCain hang touch policy, and a Godsend to the Obama camp — and the news guys are barely paying attention to it. Could I be missing something? If I am, I can’t figure what.