Picking up on a meme circulating in the blogosphere, today in Reno McCain opened a new line of attack against Barack Obama for having only visited Iraq one time - in 2006) and alleging that he's more willing to sit down with Ahmadinejad than General Petraeus:

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton fired back with this statement:

"On the day after the former White House press secretary conceded that the Bush administration used deception and propaganda to take us to war, it seems odd that Senator McCain, who bought the flawed rationale for war so readily, would be lecturing others on their depth of understanding about Iraq. Senator Obama challenged the President's rationale for the war from the start, warning that it would divert resources from Afghanistan and the pursuit of Al Qaeda and mire us in an endless civil war. Senator McCain stubbornly insists on pursuing the failed Bush policy that continues to cost so much, while Senator Obama believes it's time to begin a deliberate, careful strategy to remove our troops and compel the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future."

Now McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds has responded to Obama's response:

"In 2004, Barack Obama said he had the same position as President George W. Bush, so that line of reasoning is puzzling. Barack Obama is trying to hide behind inside-the-beltway headlines and avoiding the fact that he hasn't seen the conditions on the ground in Iraq for 871 days which includes the Surge strategy and its resulting progress. It's fundamentally weak leadership by Senator Obama and shows that he's just not ready to be our military's commander in chief."

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