McCain: 'Show me somebody to hit'

On Sunday, the New York Times front-paged a profile of McCain’s response to 9/11: to retaliate not only against Al Qaeda -- but also Iraq, Iran, and Syria. “Now, as Mr. McCain prepares to accept the Republican presidential nomination, his response to the attacks of Sept. 11 opens a window onto how he might approach the gravest responsibilities of a potential commander in chief. Like many, he immediately recalibrated his assessment of the unseen risks to America’s security. But he also began to suggest that he saw a new ‘opportunity’ to deter other potential foes by punishing not only Al Qaeda but also Iraq.” “To his admirers, Mr. McCain’s tough response to Sept. 11 is at the heart of his appeal. They argue that he displayed the same decisiveness again last week in his swift calls to penalize Russia for its incursion into Georgia, in part by sending peacekeepers to police its border. His critics charge that the emotion of Sept. 11 overwhelmed his former cool-eyed caution about deploying American ... (link)